The Left staged a collective meltdown after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest Friday morning. Witnesses claimed she had assisted 30-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national and illegal alien, in evading an ICE arrest.
The judge allegedly guided Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out of her courtroom through the jury door — instead of the main entrance where ICE agents were stationed — following his pre-trial hearing on three misdemeanor battery charges. If the witness claims are correct, Dugan acted in clear violation of the law, and her arrest was warranted.
One social media user compared Dugan’s actions to “a firefighter committing arson — the last thing you’d expect from a firefighter.”
But, as always, the Left didn’t let something as inconvenient as legitimacy stop them from whipping up public hysteria. Politicians and legacy media hosts quickly took their verbal marching orders from Democrat Central and sprang into action. Suddenly, President Donald Trump was being framed as a would-be dictator for targeting judges Hitler-style. If this could happen to a judge, they warned, it could happen to any one of us. No one was safe.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who was one of many Democrats to claim that “no one is above the law” during the Biden administration’s almost unfathomable lawfare campaign against Trump, spoke for many in her party when she posted the following message on social media: “This is not normal. The Administration’s arrest of a sitting judge in Wisconsin is a drastic move that threatens the rule of law. While we don’t have all the details, this is a grave step and undermines our system of checks and balances.”
Klobuchar’s reaction was quite different from her response to the unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, a former president’s home, in August 2022. At the time, Klobuchar noted, “The law is king, and the former president isn’t.”
But then something odd happened. Amidst the wailing and the gnashing of liberal and anti-Trumper teeth, a few quiet voices of sanity rose up.
Among those voices was former Attorney General William Barr, who has never passed up an opportunity to criticize his former boss.
During a Monday afternoon interview with Fox Business News host David Asman, Barr said, “I don’t think there’s any question about this, and I think it’s time for zero tolerance. And getting back to basics, which are that judges and state officials are still citizens. They’re subject to the federal law and they cannot interfere in or impede the federal function. So, I’m 100% in agreement with what’s [been] done.”
CNN’s senior legal analyst and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Konig supported the arrest. “Looking at the complaint, let’s strip the politics out of it — this is a crime,” he said. “If they can prove what happened here, it is a crime.”
“Let’s say law enforcement shows up at a building. They’re looking for person A. Person B then says, ‘Hey, there’s a secret escape door out back. I’m going to show you the way.’ And then ushers that person out the back door. That is textbook obstruction.”
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe remarked that the case against Dugan was not “unreasonable.” He said, “There’s plenty of evidence in the complaint to get you beyond the probable cause phase, which is where we are right now.”
He did, however, object to the public way in which the arrest was carried out. Specifically, he pointed out, “She was arrested at the courthouse rather than her own residence, the fact that she was placed in a jail cell for hours before her arraignment was called in the court later in the afternoon. These things are unprecedented.”
Actually, that’s not true.
McCabe must have forgotten the September 2022 arrest of pro-life activist Mark Houck for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Several dozen armed FBI agents arrived at his home in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. His wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, later told LifeSite News that she and her husband were at home with their seven young children when members of the SWAT team began pounding on the front door at 7:05 a.m.
In the X post below, @WesternLensman recalls the Biden DOJ “conducted pre-dawn raids to arrest J6’ers with no criminal history and charged with misdemeanors. The same people cheered. This is the only strategy they can come up with to attack Trump, knowing the actual facts of the case are a political loser.”
Some of us still remember the wild scene that unfolded at the home of Trump associate Roger Stone during his arrest. The chef’s kiss? The FBI had tipped off CNN ahead of time so they could be on-site when the raid went down.
But over and above everything else, the judge’s actions denied — or at least delayed — justice for the illegal aliens’ alleged victims who’d shown up to make their voices heard. They deserved better.
Another X user reminds McCabe that the illegal alien’s alleged victims were in court that day.
So if McCabe’s only complaint is about how the arrest was handled, I’ll take that as a win. If the allegations against Dugan are proven, she committed a crime and should be prosecuted. Period. Everything else is just noise and propaganda.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY