A bipartisan group of more than 150 former federal and state judges sharply criticized the Trump administration for its handling of the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in a May 5 letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Dugan was arrested at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 25, handcuffed behind her back and later ankle-shackled at the federal courthouse on charges she helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest after an appearance in her courtroom a week earlier. "Seeing a judge handcuffed, photographed and perp walked highlights the authoritarian playbook of the Trump administration," said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge and Democratic President Bill Clinton appointee who helped write and signed the letter.
"It is something we should never tolerate in the United States." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Judge Hannah Dugan has all-star legal team, including 'LeBron James of lawyers' Another lead signer, J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal appeals court judge, said: "I have spent my career upholding the Constitution. I never imagined I'd see a judge treated like this in America.
The arrest and prosecution of judges is where rule by law ends and authoritarianism begins. The judiciary is the last obstacle to a president with designs on tyrannical rule." Retired Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske also signed the letter.
The FBI, which oversaw the arrest in Milwaukee, has declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But on April 25, FBI Director Kash Patel quickly boasted about Dugan's arrest, posting a photograph of the handcuffed judge being led away. "No one is above the law," he wrote on X.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email, "In this administration, anyone who commits crimes exposes themselves to criminal liability." Six former Wisconsin federal prosecutors interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the way Dugan was arrested was unusual and unnecessary, especially the handcuffed "perp walk" the ankle shackles and the social media post by the head of the FBI. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hannah Dugan arrest criticized in retired judges' letter to Pam Bondi
