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Federal prosecutors are opposing Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan’s effort to have an indictment against her dismissed. The indictment accuses her of allegedly assisting an illegal immigrant in avoiding capture by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers within the Milwaukee County Courthouse last month.
Judge Dugan, aged 65, faced an indictment last month on federal charges for obstructing proceedings that were before a U.S. agency, alongside charges of unlawfully hiding an individual who was subject to arrest.
According to court documents submitted in late May, her defense team argues that she deserves judicial immunity and claims that the federal government exceeded its jurisdiction by arresting and charging her, thus infringing on her 10th Amendment rights and breaching the principle of separation of powers.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a response to her motion to dismiss, noting that “the Supreme Court has made clear that judges are not immune from criminal liability.”
Judge Hannah Dugan allegedly told agents that they needed a judicial warrant and told them to go to the Chief Judge’s Office. (Milwaukee County)
Prosecutors say evidence also shows Dugan directing agents to the chief judge’s office even while knowing he was out, then she “quickly returned to her courtroom and, among other things, directed [Florez-Ruiz’s] attorney to ‘take your client out and come back and get a date; and then to go through the jury door and down the stairs’ before physically escorting [Flroes-Ruiz] and his attorney into a non-public hallway with access to a stairwell that led to a courthouse exit,” filings say.
Dugan “did this all just days after thanking a colleague for providing information which explained that ICE could lawfully make arrests in the courthouse hall,” prosecutors stated Wednesday.
The surveillance footage released by Milwaukee County appears to show Judge Hannah Dugan, wearing her black robes, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway. (Milwaukee County)
“Put simply, nothing in the indictment or the anticipated evidence at trial supports Dugan’s assertion that agents ‘disrupted’ the court’s docket; instead, all events arose from Dugan’s unilateral, non-judicial, and unofficial actions in obstructing a federal immigration matter over which she, as a Wisconsin state judge, had no authority,” the document reads. “At the very least, for purposes of deciding this motion, Dugan’s claims to the contrary find no support in the indictment and should be rejected.”
One of Dugan’s defense attorneys, Dean Strang, told Fox News Digital that her counsel has a “good reply” to prosecutors’ Wednesday filing, but her team is waiting until their reply brief, due next Monday, to make it.
The Milwaukee judge has pleaded not guilty to charges filed against her, and a federal judge has set her trial date for July 21.
The FBI is seen arresting Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on April 25. (Obtained by Fox News)
A federal indictment accuses Dugan of “falsely” telling federal officials in April that they needed a warrant to come into her courtroom during a scheduled appearance by Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented Mexican national facing three misdemeanor battery charges.
Video footage appears to show Flores-Ruiz exiting the courthouse with his attorney, while an ICE agent follows him, and then running alongside the building for about a block before agents capture and arrest him.
Federal officials arrested Dugan a week after the courthouse incident.
Judge Hannah Dugan appeared in federal court to answer charges that she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, elude federal arrest while he was making an appearance in her courtroom on April 18. (Scott Olson)
Dugan could face a maximum sentence of six years. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against her. Fox News Digital has reached out to her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, for comment on the footage.
In April, Dugan’s legal team also filed a motion to dismiss the federal case against her, saying the judge “is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts.”
“Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” the motion said.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
