MILWAUKEE (AP) — Prosecutors played audio recordings Monday as they tried to show jurors that a Wisconsin judge knew what was at stake earlier this year when she directed an immigrant to a private door while federal agents were in the courthouse to arrest the man.
“I’ll get the heat," Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan told her court reporter as they discussed who would assist Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, according to courtroom audio.
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CORRECTS IDENTIFICATION This courtroom sketch depicts show FBI agent Erin Lucker on the stand during Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan trial on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adela Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts defense attorney Steven Biskupic during Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan's trial on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adela Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in court on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adele Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in court as jury selection in her trial begins Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adele Tesnow via AP)
Federal prosecutors charged Dugan with obstruction and concealment in April, an extraordinary consequence of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. According to an FBI affidavit, a team of six federal agents and officers traveled to the Milwaukee County courthouse on April 18 to arrest Flores-Ruiz, 31, for being in the country illegally.
Flores-Ruiz was facing state battery charges and was scheduled to appear at a hearing in front of Dugan that morning. The team planned to arrest him when he came out of the hearing.
According to the affidavit, Dugan learned the agents and officers were in the hallway waiting for Flores-Ruiz. She left the courtroom and told them to consult with the chief judge. After several agents left to see the chief judge, she led Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through a private back door.
The private door led Flores-Ruiz back to the public hallway. Agents followed him outside and eventually arrested him after a foot chase. He was deported months later.
Courthouse video shows Dugan directing members of the arrest team toward the chief judge's office and she hasn't disputed that she led Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom. The case hinges on whether she was intentionally trying to prevent his arrest.
Prosecutors opened her trial Monday in federal court in Milwaukee by working to show that the judge told the agents to see the chief judge to create an opening for Flores-Ruiz to escape.
FBI Special Agent Erin Lucker testified that while agents were in the chief judge's office, Dugan moved Flores-Ruiz's case to the top of her docket, scheduled another hearing for him and told him he could appear via Zoom before directing him out through the back door. All this was done within minutes, Lucker said.
Prosecutors played audio from her courtroom in which Dugan and her court reporter discussed who should lead Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom. After the reporter offered to help him, Dugan said that she'd do it.
“I'll get the heat,” Dugan said.
The arrest team "did not expect a judge, sworn to uphold the law, would divide their arrest team and impede their efforts to do their jobs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander told jurors.
Defense attorney Steven Biskupic countered that the judge had no intention of obstructing agents. He said during his opening statements that Dugan was following a draft courthouse policy that called for court personnel to refer immigration agents looking to make an arrest in the courthouse to supervisors.
Dugan didn't obstruct the team, Biskupic said, pointing out that two agents who didn't go to the chief judge's office could have arrested Flores-Ruiz as soon as he stepped into the public corridor but instead followed him outside before trying to apprehend him.
“Now, after the fact, everyone wants to blame Judge Dugan,” Biskupic told the jury.
The government’s case is expected to run through Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses expected to testify. The maximum sentence for the more serious charge, obstruction, is five years in prison, though federal judges have much discretion to go lower.
Ahead of the trial, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declined to dismiss the charges, saying there was no firmly established immunity for Dugan.
Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring. The administration has branded her an activist judge.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a recent tweet.
Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
CORRECTS IDENTIFICATION This courtroom sketch depicts show FBI agent Erin Lucker on the stand during Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan trial on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adela Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts defense attorney Steven Biskupic during Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan's trial on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adela Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in court on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adele Tesnow via AP, Pool)
This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in court as jury selection in her trial begins Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adele Tesnow via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chaotic weather, from surprising heat in California to damaging winds around Washington, D.C., put over half the U.S. population in the path of extreme conditions Monday.
Storms across the nation's eastern half forced airlines to cancel more than 3,000 flights nationwide Monday, and many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds and tornadoes were in the forecast for the evening.
Blizzards buried parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota while torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii.
In Washington, the House of Representatives postponed votes because of difficulty traveling with inclement weather, and federal agencies told workers to go home early.
Airport delays and cancellations piled up Monday in some of the nation’s largest airports — including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.
The private weather service AccuWeather calculated that more than 200 million people were under threat Monday of some kind of dangerous weather.
Those range from extreme heat and wildfire advisories to flood and freeze watches from the National Weather Service.
The storm system that dropped snow by the foot in the Midwest is barreling toward the East Coast with dangerously high winds and potential for “producing strong and long track tornadoes,” the weather service warned Monday.
“Wind is the primary threat, but within any of these areas of strong wind there could be some embedded tornadoes and even the potential for a tornado to develop ahead of the line,” said Evan Bentley, a meteorologist with the weather service.
The biggest threat stretched from Maryland to the upper edge of South Carolina.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein urged residents to enable emergency alerts on their phones ahead of expected gusts topping 70 mph (112 kph).
Blizzard conditions continued in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes on Monday after the storm walloped parts of Wisconsin and Michigan with several feet of snow.
Since Saturday, nearly 3 feet (61 centimeters) had fallen in the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain.
Another round of snow and gusts on Monday could bring another foot of snow across Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
A heat dome over the Southwest will push temperatures well into the triple digits in Arizona most of the week, much earlier than the region usually sees.
Much of California is starting to feel like summer too. The San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento will see temperatures pushing toward 90 F (32 C) by midweek.
“This is a heat wave that we have not seen before in recorded history in the Southwest,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin.
Phoenix is expected to have five straight days of triple digit temperatures this week — only once before, in 1988, has the city recorded a 100 F (37.8 C) day in March, DePodwin said.
Dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in Nebraska’s history. Fires in the state have consumed more than 937 square miles (2,428 square kilometers) of mostly grassland.
Unrelenting rains triggered landslides, washed away roads and flooded homes and farmland in Hawaii over the weekend.
All of Hawaii’s islands had spots with more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain while parts of Maui were overwhelmed with double that amount, the weather service said.
While the worst of the storm has passed, more heavy rain is forecast for later this week. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said there were no reports of injuries or deaths and crews were assessing damage.
Forecasters said the East Coast storms were expected leave sharply colder weather in its wake.
The storm will stick around parts of the Northeast until Tuesday morning. By then, wind chills below freezing were expected to reach the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle with warnings in effect across the Southeast and in part of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, forecasters warned.
To the north, rain was expected to change over to snow behind the cold front with heavy snow possible in the central Appalachians of West Virginia.
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Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Julie Walker in New York; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Gary Fields in Washington contributed.
People watch as storms roll over the U.S. Capitol Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Morning traffic is seen on Lake Shore Drive, after the overnight snow, Monday, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Dense fog and low clouds cover parts of the George Washington Bridge as seen from Fort Lee, N.J., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A person bundles up and fishes on a breakwater by Montrose Harbor, Monday morning, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
A man shovels snow after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Snow is plowed after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Victor Alomoto who is from Ecuador cleared the sidewalk for the River Valley Church in the North Loop Pedestrians during the snow storm in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, March 15, 2026.(Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Ogo Akpati and his son Brycson Akpati, 3, braved the strong winds and had fun sliding down a hill in Central Park Sunday, March 15,2026 in Brooklyn Park, MN. (Jerry Holt/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Fans walk through snowy streets before an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
People drive on a snow-covered freeway during a snow storm Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Workers clear snow off the ground Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
