Who is Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan?

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee judge charged with helping a man evade federal immigration authorities, is known for running a strict courtroom and being a familiar face in the community, particularly at interfaith events.

Dugan was arrested last month at the Milwaukee County courthouse, and a federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted her, allowing the case against her to continue.

The case has catapulted Dugan into the national fight between the Trump administration and the judiciary over immigration policies. The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended her while the case is pending.

Prosecutors charged Dugan in April with concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest, a felony, and obstructing or impeding a proceeding, a misdemeanor. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

In the federal criminal justice system, prosecutors can initiate charges against a defendant by filing a complaint or present evidence to a grand jury and let that body decide whether to issue charges. A grand jury still reviews charges brought by complaint. If the grand jury determines there’s probable cause, it issues a written statement of the charges known as an indictment. That’s what happened in Dugan’s case.

Dugan allegedly let Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave her courtroom through a jury door not accessible to the public on April 18 to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit. Flores-Ruiz was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.

Flores-Ruiz, a native of Mexico, was in court for a hearing after being charged with three counts of misdemeanor domestic battery.

Here's what we know so far about Dugan and the case against her:

The FBI took Dugan into custody on the courthouse grounds — the same building that federal immigration agents entered on April 18 in search of Flores-Ruiz.

Flores-Ruiz was removed from the U.S. through Arizona over a decade ago, and there is no evidence he got permission to return, according to the affidavit.

A fingerprint match prompted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to go to the courthouse and wait outside the courtroom during his appearance.

After learning the agents were there, Dugan became “visibly angry,” according to the affidavit. She and another judge approached them in a hallway and sent them to the chief judge's office. Dugan then returned to her courtroom and ushered Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through the jury door, according to the affidavit.

Defendants who are not in custody and their attorneys never use that door, the affidavit says.

That allegedly helped Flores-Ruiz leave the building using an elevator.

Dugan's attorneys said on the day she was arrested that Dugan “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”

“Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated,” her attorneys said.

Her legal team includes Steven Biskupic, who was a federal prosecutor for 20 years and served seven years as U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, and Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general who has argued more than 100 cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Both Clement and Biskupic were appointed to jobs by former Republican President George W. Bush.

She has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge since defeating an incumbent appointee of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016. She ran unopposed in 2022, and her current term expires in 2028.

Tom Barrett, a former congressman and mayor of Milwaukee for 17 years, said he was friends with Dugan’s older sister in high school and has known Dugan, 65, since she was 12.

“As a person and a judge, she always tries to do the right thing, and she cares deeply about the community and people and justice,” Barrett said.

Dugan previously was a litigation attorney and held administrative posts at Legal Action of Wisconsin Inc. and Legal Aid Society Inc.

As an attorney, legal areas she focused on included older people and disabilities, civil rights, domestic abuse and others, according to her LinkedIn page.

Dugan was president of the Milwaukee Bar Association from 1999 to 2000 and worked three years as executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc.

A 1981 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also received her law degree in 1987, Dugan has taught law and graduate students at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Attorneys who have appeared before Dugan describe her as extremely tough but fair.

“She is a stickler for procedure,” Milwaukee criminal defense attorney Julius Kim said. “She’s fair. I certainly don’t think she’s a pushover, by any stretch. She’s very methodical in her approach.”

A sign that remained posted on Dugan’s courtroom door the day she was arrested advised that if an attorney or other court official “knows or believes that a person feels unsafe coming to the courthouse” or her courtroom, they should notify the clerk and request an appearance via Zoom.

Dugan previously found herself involved in a political fight in 2023, when she dismissed a Republican Party lawsuit that argued a Milwaukee get-out-the-vote effort was illegal.

Democrats and others have rallied around Dugan and protested her arrest, while Republicans have heralded it.

Democrats warned that the arrest of the judge could discourage people from reporting a crime or even reporting a fire for fear they could be detained.

“These actions are transparently meant to be chilling, cruel and undermining the rule of law,” said Melinda Brennan, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.

Brian Schimming, chair of the state Republican Party, said on social media that the arrest shows “nobody’s above the law, even judges.”

Republicans in the state Assembly, where they have majority control, said in a statement that the charges against Dugan are “serious, deeply troubling, and strike at the core of public trust.” They suggested they could seek to remove Dugan from office through impeachment.

Under guidance issued Jan. 21, ICE officers and agents may carry out immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses if they believe someone they are trying to find will be there.

They are generally required to let their internal legal office know ahead of time to make sure there are no legal restrictions, and they are supposed to carry out enforcement actions in nonpublic areas whenever possible, coordinate with court security and try minimize the impact on court operations. They are also to avoid doing so in places that are not used for criminal proceedings, such as family court.

Immigration advocates say letting ICE enter courthouses for arrests intimidates crime victims and witnesses who are in the country illegally.

ICE officials say they have to find other ways to find deportable people in communities that do not notify the agency when jails or prisons are releasing them. ICE also says courthouse arrests are usually safer for agents because people there have generally been searched for weapons.

Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.

People gather to demonstrate the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, outside the Federal courthouse in Milwaukee on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)

A sign is posted on the doors of Judge Hannah Dugan courtroom Friday, April 25, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)

This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent via AP)

U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.

Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.

The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.

The latest:

Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.

As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.

Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.

Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”

As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.

Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.

Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.

“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.

Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.

At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.

Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.

He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.

Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.

The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.

Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.

The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.

Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.

Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”

The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”

The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.

Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”

Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.

“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.

He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”

Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.

December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.

The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)