Across the country, Democrat-aligned activist judges have been scrambling to undermine President Donald Trump’s executive authority.
However, after the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, the tides seem to be turning.
As Fox News explains, Dugan was arrested on Friday morning on allegations that she endeavored to hide a criminal illegal alien.
The suspect, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz of Mexico, had been previously deported before illegally re-entering the country.
However, Dugan helped Flores-Ruiz hide from authorities to thwart his arrest by ICE agents.
Federal officers from a handful of agencies attempted to arrest Flores-Ruiz after a court appearance before Dugan related to battery charges.
It was then that Dugan told the officers to go to the chief judge’s office.
When Flores-Ruiz’s hearing concluded, she allegedly escorted both the suspect and his lawyer out via a restricted exit away from the public part of the building where agents were waiting to apprehend him.
As a result of her conduct, Dugan was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding.
She was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest.
Not surprisingly, the arrest has spurred a host of heated reactions on the Left.
Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers alleged that President Trump’s administration is employing “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including disobeying the highest court in the land.”
However, not every Democrat was so quick to jump to Dugan’s defense.
Two top officials from former President Barack Obama’s administration have now spoken out to blast Dugan for having “overstepped” her authority.
According to Breitbart, one experienced former DOJ official, Gene Rossi, commented on the situation.
Rossi said it appears that Judge Dugan was willfully attempting to hide an illegal alien from being arrested and deported.
The Obama-era DOJ official, who worked at the Justice Department from 1989-2016, said that it appears she was intentional in hiding the defendant.
Rossi added that it was wrong that “she adjourned the case without telling the prosecutor and without telling the victims.”
During a CNN interview, Rossi held nothing back, providing his insight on the current situation with the judge.
“What you have here is a Judge who’s just incredibly angry that DEA agents, ICE agents, Custom[s] and Border Protection deportation officers are hovering around like bees for a man that they’re trying to arrest. It’s anger on steroids,” Rossi said.
He added, “That prosecutor had this case on his docket.
“He had the victims there in the audience.
“For the victims, and I’m a big victim advocate, this was a big deal.
“And the thing that really bothers me about the Judge, and I think this is a big mess, is that she adjourned the case without telling the prosecutor and without telling the victims.”
However, Rossi said he didn’t believe there’s enough there to convict the activist judge.
“And, whether there’s probable cause or beyond a reasonable doubt could convict her, that, to me, shows that she was willfully trying to hide that defendant from being arrested,” Rossi said.
“And that bothers me a lot.”
Rossi explained that the lack of evidence to get a conviction would have deterred him from taking the case further.
He further stated that Dugan adjourning the case “points towards her trying to conceal and obstruct the arrest of this individual…whether I, as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, would have papered this case, probably not.”
Rossi also drew on his vast experience with illegal immigration cases.
“I did a ton of illegal immigration cases, a thousand,” Rossi explained.
“I tried, and I supervised thousands.
“Would I have papered this case? No.
“The thing that bothers me about the Justice Department in this case is they made it into a show.
“They waited a whole week to paper this case, a week.”
He also said they “made a spectacle of this case.”
Rossi is not the only Obama administration official to speak out.
John Sandweg, the man who served as acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Obama, also blasted Dugan’s actions, as Breitbart reports.
Sandweg outlined his objections to the judge’s conduct on Friday.
During an appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Sandweg expressed concern over the impact on ICE cases such as this may have.
He noted that Dugan’s actions were far from appropriate.
Sandweg said of what unfolded in Wisconsin last week:
“I would like to see the ICE agents just pick him up outside the courthouse or pick him up as he leaves the courthouse.
“During the Obama administration, as you know, during the Biden administration, we had a sensitive location policy.”
“We couldn’t arrest people in a courthouse,” he added.
“I think there are good reasons for that.”
With respect to Dugan specifically, Sandweg said:
“I’m not here to defend this judge. … I think she overstepped here.
“I think there are other ways to lodge her objections.”
As Fox News noted separately, Dugan’s fellow Wisconsin judge, Monica Isham, threatened not to hold court as a means of protesting what occurred on Friday.
“I have no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process,” Isham said.
“Should I start raising bail money?”
Unfortunately, despite all the liberal exhortations that “nobody is above the law,” articulated endlessly during the campaign of lawfare against Trump, it in fact appears that the lion’s share of Democrats do believe that those who sit on the bench are entitled to an exemption from that supposedly foundational principle.
