Hold the spin – here’s what actually happened to that Wisconsin judge

Here’s what actually happened to that Wisconsin judge.

Setting aside the spin – and there’s plenty of it from some Democrats and pundits – these are the facts.

Based on the criminal complaint, county judge Hannah Dugan had a hearing scheduled for illegal Mexican immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz – who is already facing charges of domestic abuse.

Not only that, Flores-Ruiz got into a fight with two roommates who complained that he was playing his music too loud.

Flores-Ruiz punched one roommate in the face 30 times, then hit a woman who tried to end the fight, the complaint says. Let that sink in for a minute.

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Now let’s get to what Hannah Dugan did. (National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a highly detailed account with extensive quotes from the documents.)

First she blew off the hearing. ICE agents have the absolute power to arrest the immigrant at the county courthouse, and were closing in, but hoped to do it in a low-key manner. 

Then she arranged for Flores-Ruiz to slip out a private exit, for the sole purpose of helping him avoid the federal agents. And it worked. But the agents tracked him down after a chase.

This sounds very much like alleged obstruction of justice.

Now Dugan is entitled to the presumption of innocence, along with a healthy skepticism. We’ve only heard the government’s side of the story.  

Does that sound like obstruction of justice? That’s what the judge has been charged with, along with concealing an individual to prevent an arrest.

The Washington Post yesterday made explicit what it implied a day earlier: “While many Republican supporters of the president cheered the aggressive actions, critics of the administration said the spectacle sent a chilling message.

“‘The obvious purpose of the arrest of Judge Dugan on criminal charges is to intimidate and threaten all judges, state and local, across the country,’ said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former U.S. appeals court judge.”

Many others are treating Dugan’s arrest, unusual though it is, as an outrage.

Before the arrest of Flores-Diaz, the Milwaukee county executive said: “An attack on this safe, community-serving space undermines public trust, breeds fear among citizens and staff and disrupts the due process essential to our courts,” An attack, says David Crowley. 

Some other quotes helpfully rounded up by Geraghty:

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith posted: “If Kash Patel,” the FBI director, “and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them.” So this was not about alleged obstruction of justice but some kind of personal animus toward Dugan? And I doubt Trump knew anything about this.

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New York Times columnist David Brooks said on PBS: “It strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.” It MAY be illegal, but on what planet would the judge’s actions be deemed heroic??

And here’s one I found from Guardian columnist Moira Donegan, saying: “The Trump administration is making an example of the Milwaukee judge to intimidate critics and opponents.”

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So now the tale has morphed into an anti-Trump hit job. The president does plenty of things to intimidate critics and openly talks about it. This isn’t one of them.

As for the politics, aren’t most voters going to be more concerned with keeping violent illegal migrants off our streets?