Tonight, at just about the same time, there was news in both the Brown University shooting case and in the prosecution of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan.
It is appalling that a judge would have been convicted of helping a client to leave her courtroom in a less crowded route. I'm sorry, but ICE should never be able to arrest anyone at a courthouse where people come to have their cases heard and to comply with the law regarding reporting in etc. I am wondering what that jury was thinking. Clearly it wasn't imagining it were themselves in that situation. In addition, I am wondering if the judge being a woman had anything to do with this. Such a conviction lets ICE and their barbarians think they have free rein to do whatever they want wherever they want. I hope she appeals and wins the case as she should have yesterday. Appalling. As for the Brown story, I am wondering what Trump and his minions will say to spin this story in their favor. This regime is truly disgusting so I am guessing it will be something about left-wing radicals or whatever word Trump can fish out of his dementia-laden brain at that moment.
I agree - you've said it better than I could. I can't believe that the government thinks it's a great idea to prosecute a judge. I was horrified when I first heard about it, and I'm astonished that it's come to this. Thanks, Joyce, for the explanation about the appeal. I hope she prevails.
Jan, yes this ios appalling and there need to be ways to stop this clearly unamerican set of actions on the part of ICE, where even a judge is charged and convicted for doing her job. This should be the clue needed for us to know that we must act and do it now and often.
Remember it was the government that brough the charges. It was the jury that convicted her. A jury of Wisconsin Citizens with good intent. Would a jury of another state have said not guilty? Maybe, maybe not, but also citizens of good intent. Values differ. Ruth Sheets and many others point out the "real problem" with out stating his name, Donald J. Trump and his insane, hateful, and racists deportation foiba. Ruth, I agree "we must act and do it now and often." I believe "we have been acting and often." Progress is being made. At just about age 89 I can say with conviction, this too, shall pass and will be/is another lesson for progress to a "More perfect Union." More pain to come. Yes. "We" will prevail, count on that.
Jan, I am hoping the next prosecution of some kind can be against the AG, Trump's pseudomommy for withholding the Epstein Files, redacting just what she doesn't want anyone to know about her Baby Donnie, and more. She has no right to be AG and I say, "shame on Republicans in the Senate, and any Democrats who voted for Ms. Bondi. They knew what she was, an inexperienced, rather pathetic lawyer.
Ellie, I had not heard that, just that he was found dead in a storage unit. So, one immigrant is a mass murder, so, in Trump's mind, all immigrants are now or are potential mass murderers. That is what we are dealing with. We don't know the motive or anything else, but it won't matter to Trump and his white house toddler pool.
And the immigrant shot another immigrant who was a revered professor and chair at MIT. So is it the "immigrant" tag that makes a violent murderer? Or a victim?
Diane, I wouldn't doubt it. But I remember that misogyny is a deeply held ism among conservative white folks and others too. I hope the judge dismisses the charges, but I don't know his race or whether he is a misogynist or not.
I think I heard, when I listened to the podcast with Adam Klasfeld, that the defense was comfortable with the jury. Maybe I have that mixed up with something else?
And Ice saw him leave; he passed right in front of a couple of agents, and others rode down the elevator with him. How that constitutes obstruction is beyond me.
Regarding the Judge Dugan case: the indictment states that she “falsely” told ICE that they needed a judicial warrant to arrest the immigrant. I’m wondering what was false about that. All the advice I’ve seen for immigrants dealing with ICE confrontations is that ICE has to have a judicial warrant (not an administrative warrant which ICE apparently had in this case).
"...directing a defendant to evade arrest is not a judicial act." By the same logic, intentionally breaking the law or directing others to break the law cannot be "official" acts of a president who swears an oath to faithfully execute the laws and to protect the Constitution. Only in the Alice in Wonderland World erected by John Roberts and gang of corrupt "Originalists" writing law "for the ages" do we discover that 2+2=5.
I want to know when they are going to charge the ICE agents for interefereing with court cases in her courtroom? Why are their actions not obstruction?
Exactly! I seem to recall that courts were one place ICE agents were not allowed to go to arrest people. (Places of worship were another.) To have these jackals lining the hallways outside the courtrooms, lying in wait for their helpless prey, and even barging into the judges' courtrooms to go after them, goes against every instinct of democracy, legality, fairness and basic human decency. They pollute the court atmosphere, which should be neutral, with overwhelming menace. I find it unbelievable that this is now common practice, and i admire any judge who lessens the threat for defendants in their courtroom. Maybe it would be good to look at the directions given to the grand jury, if possible?
Seems like these restrictions are being totally ignored by this administration, and i'd like to know if these are actual laws -- not that that would stop Noem's ghouls.
I don't know that there were any laws per se. As I recall, there was some kind of directive that churches, schools and courts were off limits to ICE agents. But you are right - nothing would stop the current DHS.
"lying in wait for their helpless prey..." Exactly. I am in no way equating law-abiding immigrants with wild creatures - I compare the immorality of these ICE arrests in courthouses to the odious practice of "spotlighting". If you're not familiar with this, it is the immoral action of lazy hunters to observe game in the forest edge at night, whip out their high-powered spotlight and use it to blind their target. Deer, for example, will pause in confusion, their night vision destroyed by the bright light, making them easy targets for the hunter. He never even has to set foot outside his comfy pick-up truck. And they call this "sport".
I don't know about other states but spotlighting is illegal in Virginia. Yet, the law requires human beings to appear in court on certain dates at certain times and the law seems to allow ICE thugs to lie in wait to arrest them. In my opinion, these routine check-ins at court should ALL be done remotely. Better, the entire nasty process should be forbidden.
“ The most important development tonight is that law enforcement seems confident that the risk to the public is over.” Excuse me, but the risk to the public is never over in our country. WTF—the risk is huge for every human being walking in our country every single day. Why are we accepting this? Guns kill people.
When the GOP refused to do anything after Sandy Hook, it seemed clear they would never do anything - anything at all - to limit guns. 20 little kids murdered along with 6 adults and that did not move them to action. Appalling.
Human sacrifice still. To Moloch and Mammon. Vile, haphazard savagery. The Aztecs' practice was civilized by comparison with this meaningless nihilism.
Well said. The risk to the country is even greater than it has been, with gun shootings by civilians as well as ICE bullying and violence. Too many guns in the hands of private individuals and not-well-trained federal agents.
What's interesting, and important, in Australia is that they are talking about gun licenses not being in perpetuity, a nod to the fact that someone can be "sane" when they get a license, but bcome radicalized, or whatever, at a later date.
I was proud of my 18 year old grandson (who, as a high school senior probably is more aware of risk to the public than we are) posted on his Instagram: "There's no way to prevent [school shootings] says the only nation where this regularly happens." Now, if we could only galvanize a movement similar to those that brought down the incidence of drunk driving (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) or the violence that had consumed Northern Ireland (Peace People and Women Together.) There may be no way to eradicate it completely but there HAS to an answer if other countries have addressed, and reduced acts of violence in their countries.
Valerie, the NRA zealots took over in 1977. They were industry zealots and they repeated a false reading of the 2nd amendment over and over again until it was cemented into many minds that we have a right to bear arms. But we never did. Organized militia have this right dating to the founding and organized militia were and are the state National Guard. It doesn’t have more meaning than that. But even Joseph Goorbles understood if you tell a lie repeatedly people will believe it.
No! Guns do not kill people. People use guns to kill people! If there were no guns would the mass murders or murder stop? No. Inanimate objects do not have the "will to kill." People do. It is not the guns, knives, golf clubs, or and other object that kill, it is people! Lets stop the false idea that "Guns Kill People." Controlling guns, though needed, is not the answer. I own no guns or golf clubs. Work on the "People Problem" is needed far more than any other issue. People KILL, not guns.
But guns kill far MORE people, and faster, than all the objects you named. I'm sorry Ted but your argument is one that has been used to deflect the reality of the dangers of guns over and over and over. If that gunman at Sandy Hook or, God help us, Uvalde, had had a knife or a golf club or any other object, he would have been taken down much faster, with fewer little lives lost, than he did. I know, I've been a teacher and I would have gone up against a knife wielding individual--and got my kids out of the room while I did--whereas I don't think I could have gone up against an individual with a semi-automatic rifle nor been able to keep my little ones safe from bullets flying. Guns DO kill people.
Valerie you are so correct in the need for gun control, as I also stated in my comment. A fight for gun control is one we cannot win. Groups like the NRA, gun manufactures & sellers, as well as millions of gun rights folks have so much, too much money, influence, and power for rest of us to sway them or the courts, in any meaningful way. I chose to not fight that battle. Yes Valerie, when a person pulls the trigger, the result is the gun kills. A person must pull the trigger. The gun cannot kill on its own.
The battle we can win is one to change the way people treat others. Hitler could and did change a nations thinking in a terrible way, to accept the killing of millions. Trump is trying to change our way of thinking to accept lying, cheating, and the killing of alleged drug runners. Trying to make us accept that as normal, which it is not. That is all the proof we need to know that change for the better is also possible. I chose to fight that battle, because it is a battle we can win and the NRA, gun manufactures & sellers, as well as millions of gun rights folks have no powers to prevent success. There will still be millions of guns available, just fewer people choosing to use them for mass shooting. Why waste time, money, and effort on a no-win battle. Let us fight for positive change, as many are already doing. Proof of that effort is the number of people who chose to "turn their guns in" when communities have drives to do so.
A question for Joyce and Mary: With the current administration dismantling, whole departments, etc., clawing back funding etc. shutting down USAID, science, cutting back NASA and weather departments, etc. is anyone looking at the amount of taxes each state pays that used to support all the departments and organizations that are being dismantled ? and if so, where is the fight to address the amount of taxes state pay if everything is going to be shut off? I see taxes increasing yes, for most Americans under the big ugly bill to be funneled to the military, ice, tax break for billionaires, but if we are losing all the departments that help build society, isn’t there somewhere somebody calling against this taxation without representation? And then we know that California pays huge amounts of taxes to the government whereas a state like Louisiana pays nothing and gets revenue back. ? Will you please address this if possible. Thank you.
If Trump were not a cult leader president, his daily felonies would render him ineligible for conviction on the grounds that his aggression reflected disinhibition due to an almost classical case of Frontal Lobe Dementia. 5-10 years before his 1st election, his syntax, prosody and vocabulary were pretty normal. He was slick, but contained, except with women in social situations. Personality change comes first, with impaired memory later on. It can take 10-20 years to express itself fully. He has deceived people because he was a rotten character before he became president, so much of his behavior has seemed a continuation of what came before. His well-honed showmanship has served him well as a cult leader. Nonetheless, you have to give him credit for unleashing the worst aspects of nearly half our country's citizens' psyches. Mary Trump, you warned everyone. Thank god you've been safe.
If leading a client out a side door is a felony for obstructing a federal agent, could they use this case to prosecute citizens using whistles to obstruct arrests? What's the line you can't cross? This case is infuriating and heartbreaking. She has worked her whole life to become a judge and now she can lose it all to a corrupt & vindictive DOJ.
How will this country, already unable to stop Trump and his banditos from ignoring almost all laws and president, survive three more years of this lopsided assault on our constitution and our values? We talk and shout, we occasionally march, and we claim victories, while the president and his prison monkeys destroy without consequence. If the strength of our protest of this first year of Trump's second term is the best we can muster, we're done.
What can be legally done to stop all of the destruction of institutions, national monuments and human lives that Trump is doing? Is there any legal way to stop him before he does more irreparable damage?
I ask the same question almost daily. Our representatives don’t respond to letters asking why are they so quiet about all the destruction. It’s seems to come in heaps daily.
Note in particular that the woman judge from the courtroom next door to Judge Dugan, one Judge Kristela Cervera, testified as a witness for the prosecution to convict Dugan. Also, the courtroom door through which Dugan led Mr. Flores-Ruiz opened into a hallway that was closed to the public and which had 2 doors, one leading to a stairwell out the building, and the other leading into the public hallway. The prosecution argued that Judge Dugan intended for Flores-Ruiz to take the staircase so that ICE couldn’t follow him, but that Flores-Ruiz and his attorney got confused and took the door leading to the public hallway instead, where ICE agents spotted him and arrested him.
Judge Kristela Cervera texted her sister, an attorney, after her joint interaction with Dugan and the ICE agents outside their courtrooms to warn her sister that ICE agents were in the building. It would not surprise me if the US Attorney told Judge Cervera that if she testified against Judge Dugan, the US Attorney would not prosecute her for obstruction by warning her attorney sister about the ICE agents.
Was Ivana Trump, before her untimely death, subpoenad to testify against her ex husband, or on matters that would implicate Donald? Perhaps for immunity?
Or, conversely, was Ivana paid for her silent loyalty? But ultimately got forever silenced? Maybe by a Russian down from Brighton Beach working for Putin protecting Epstein because Ivana knew too much?
Or did Ivana really fall down her own stairs to her death with heavy medications in her system?
Ivana's NDA was running out, which means she could tell everything about the Trump organization (she was djt's confidant) and about him. How could the coffee not spill out of her cup if she "fell down the stairs"? He had mentioned this scenario in the past. Coincidence? Why did it take 8 men (usually 6) to struggle lifting her coffin up the stairs to the church if she had been cremated. Papers and gold bars in the coffin? Buried on private property to prevent exhumation?
Unless there was jury tampering, this conviction only demonstrates the need to statutorily change the law that convicted Judge Dugan. This conviction is a travesty to justice and our courts everywhere.
It is appalling that a judge would have been convicted of helping a client to leave her courtroom in a less crowded route. I'm sorry, but ICE should never be able to arrest anyone at a courthouse where people come to have their cases heard and to comply with the law regarding reporting in etc. I am wondering what that jury was thinking. Clearly it wasn't imagining it were themselves in that situation. In addition, I am wondering if the judge being a woman had anything to do with this. Such a conviction lets ICE and their barbarians think they have free rein to do whatever they want wherever they want. I hope she appeals and wins the case as she should have yesterday. Appalling. As for the Brown story, I am wondering what Trump and his minions will say to spin this story in their favor. This regime is truly disgusting so I am guessing it will be something about left-wing radicals or whatever word Trump can fish out of his dementia-laden brain at that moment.
I agree - you've said it better than I could. I can't believe that the government thinks it's a great idea to prosecute a judge. I was horrified when I first heard about it, and I'm astonished that it's come to this. Thanks, Joyce, for the explanation about the appeal. I hope she prevails.
Jan, yes this ios appalling and there need to be ways to stop this clearly unamerican set of actions on the part of ICE, where even a judge is charged and convicted for doing her job. This should be the clue needed for us to know that we must act and do it now and often.
Remember it was the government that brough the charges. It was the jury that convicted her. A jury of Wisconsin Citizens with good intent. Would a jury of another state have said not guilty? Maybe, maybe not, but also citizens of good intent. Values differ. Ruth Sheets and many others point out the "real problem" with out stating his name, Donald J. Trump and his insane, hateful, and racists deportation foiba. Ruth, I agree "we must act and do it now and often." I believe "we have been acting and often." Progress is being made. At just about age 89 I can say with conviction, this too, shall pass and will be/is another lesson for progress to a "More perfect Union." More pain to come. Yes. "We" will prevail, count on that.
Jan, I am hoping the next prosecution of some kind can be against the AG, Trump's pseudomommy for withholding the Epstein Files, redacting just what she doesn't want anyone to know about her Baby Donnie, and more. She has no right to be AG and I say, "shame on Republicans in the Senate, and any Democrats who voted for Ms. Bondi. They knew what she was, an inexperienced, rather pathetic lawyer.
Fodder for the spin: The alleged shooter was an immigrant.
Why did the shooter wait 25 years for revenge?
I know. My first thought.
Ellie, I had not heard that, just that he was found dead in a storage unit. So, one immigrant is a mass murder, so, in Trump's mind, all immigrants are now or are potential mass murderers. That is what we are dealing with. We don't know the motive or anything else, but it won't matter to Trump and his white house toddler pool.
And the immigrant shot another immigrant who was a revered professor and chair at MIT. So is it the "immigrant" tag that makes a violent murderer? Or a victim?
who obtained legal status under trump's first administration.
I read that the jury consisted of old, white men; not a jury of her peers. Was the jury hand picked for this result?
And I would like to know more about this judicial colleague of hers who testified against her. I haven’t heard what that was all about.
Diane, I wouldn't doubt it. But I remember that misogyny is a deeply held ism among conservative white folks and others too. I hope the judge dismisses the charges, but I don't know his race or whether he is a misogynist or not.
You are right!
I think I heard, when I listened to the podcast with Adam Klasfeld, that the defense was comfortable with the jury. Maybe I have that mixed up with something else?
And Ice saw him leave; he passed right in front of a couple of agents, and others rode down the elevator with him. How that constitutes obstruction is beyond me.
As a lawyer and original Wisconsinite, this infuriates me. Maybe the defense was incompetent. I’m holding out hope on the appeal.
Regarding the Judge Dugan case: the indictment states that she “falsely” told ICE that they needed a judicial warrant to arrest the immigrant. I’m wondering what was false about that. All the advice I’ve seen for immigrants dealing with ICE confrontations is that ICE has to have a judicial warrant (not an administrative warrant which ICE apparently had in this case).
"...directing a defendant to evade arrest is not a judicial act." By the same logic, intentionally breaking the law or directing others to break the law cannot be "official" acts of a president who swears an oath to faithfully execute the laws and to protect the Constitution. Only in the Alice in Wonderland World erected by John Roberts and gang of corrupt "Originalists" writing law "for the ages" do we discover that 2+2=5.
I want to know when they are going to charge the ICE agents for interefereing with court cases in her courtroom? Why are their actions not obstruction?
Exactly! I seem to recall that courts were one place ICE agents were not allowed to go to arrest people. (Places of worship were another.) To have these jackals lining the hallways outside the courtrooms, lying in wait for their helpless prey, and even barging into the judges' courtrooms to go after them, goes against every instinct of democracy, legality, fairness and basic human decency. They pollute the court atmosphere, which should be neutral, with overwhelming menace. I find it unbelievable that this is now common practice, and i admire any judge who lessens the threat for defendants in their courtroom. Maybe it would be good to look at the directions given to the grand jury, if possible?
Schools were another place where they were not allowed to lurk, but all those things went out the window some time ago.
Seems like these restrictions are being totally ignored by this administration, and i'd like to know if these are actual laws -- not that that would stop Noem's ghouls.
I don't know that there were any laws per se. As I recall, there was some kind of directive that churches, schools and courts were off limits to ICE agents. But you are right - nothing would stop the current DHS.
"lying in wait for their helpless prey..." Exactly. I am in no way equating law-abiding immigrants with wild creatures - I compare the immorality of these ICE arrests in courthouses to the odious practice of "spotlighting". If you're not familiar with this, it is the immoral action of lazy hunters to observe game in the forest edge at night, whip out their high-powered spotlight and use it to blind their target. Deer, for example, will pause in confusion, their night vision destroyed by the bright light, making them easy targets for the hunter. He never even has to set foot outside his comfy pick-up truck. And they call this "sport".
I don't know about other states but spotlighting is illegal in Virginia. Yet, the law requires human beings to appear in court on certain dates at certain times and the law seems to allow ICE thugs to lie in wait to arrest them. In my opinion, these routine check-ins at court should ALL be done remotely. Better, the entire nasty process should be forbidden.
Good analogy, except that ICE agents don't even have to spot their victims, as they must pass right under their noses in full vision.
“ The most important development tonight is that law enforcement seems confident that the risk to the public is over.” Excuse me, but the risk to the public is never over in our country. WTF—the risk is huge for every human being walking in our country every single day. Why are we accepting this? Guns kill people.
When the GOP refused to do anything after Sandy Hook, it seemed clear they would never do anything - anything at all - to limit guns. 20 little kids murdered along with 6 adults and that did not move them to action. Appalling.
Human sacrifice still. To Moloch and Mammon. Vile, haphazard savagery. The Aztecs' practice was civilized by comparison with this meaningless nihilism.
Well said. The risk to the country is even greater than it has been, with gun shootings by civilians as well as ICE bullying and violence. Too many guns in the hands of private individuals and not-well-trained federal agents.
What's interesting, and important, in Australia is that they are talking about gun licenses not being in perpetuity, a nod to the fact that someone can be "sane" when they get a license, but bcome radicalized, or whatever, at a later date.
I was proud of my 18 year old grandson (who, as a high school senior probably is more aware of risk to the public than we are) posted on his Instagram: "There's no way to prevent [school shootings] says the only nation where this regularly happens." Now, if we could only galvanize a movement similar to those that brought down the incidence of drunk driving (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) or the violence that had consumed Northern Ireland (Peace People and Women Together.) There may be no way to eradicate it completely but there HAS to an answer if other countries have addressed, and reduced acts of violence in their countries.
Valerie, the NRA zealots took over in 1977. They were industry zealots and they repeated a false reading of the 2nd amendment over and over again until it was cemented into many minds that we have a right to bear arms. But we never did. Organized militia have this right dating to the founding and organized militia were and are the state National Guard. It doesn’t have more meaning than that. But even Joseph Goorbles understood if you tell a lie repeatedly people will believe it.
That’s why.
And we now have a president who lies so often that media just shrug their shoulders and say “oh it’s a lie” as if that’s the end of it.
No! Guns do not kill people. People use guns to kill people! If there were no guns would the mass murders or murder stop? No. Inanimate objects do not have the "will to kill." People do. It is not the guns, knives, golf clubs, or and other object that kill, it is people! Lets stop the false idea that "Guns Kill People." Controlling guns, though needed, is not the answer. I own no guns or golf clubs. Work on the "People Problem" is needed far more than any other issue. People KILL, not guns.
But guns kill far MORE people, and faster, than all the objects you named. I'm sorry Ted but your argument is one that has been used to deflect the reality of the dangers of guns over and over and over. If that gunman at Sandy Hook or, God help us, Uvalde, had had a knife or a golf club or any other object, he would have been taken down much faster, with fewer little lives lost, than he did. I know, I've been a teacher and I would have gone up against a knife wielding individual--and got my kids out of the room while I did--whereas I don't think I could have gone up against an individual with a semi-automatic rifle nor been able to keep my little ones safe from bullets flying. Guns DO kill people.
Valerie you are so correct in the need for gun control, as I also stated in my comment. A fight for gun control is one we cannot win. Groups like the NRA, gun manufactures & sellers, as well as millions of gun rights folks have so much, too much money, influence, and power for rest of us to sway them or the courts, in any meaningful way. I chose to not fight that battle. Yes Valerie, when a person pulls the trigger, the result is the gun kills. A person must pull the trigger. The gun cannot kill on its own.
The battle we can win is one to change the way people treat others. Hitler could and did change a nations thinking in a terrible way, to accept the killing of millions. Trump is trying to change our way of thinking to accept lying, cheating, and the killing of alleged drug runners. Trying to make us accept that as normal, which it is not. That is all the proof we need to know that change for the better is also possible. I chose to fight that battle, because it is a battle we can win and the NRA, gun manufactures & sellers, as well as millions of gun rights folks have no powers to prevent success. There will still be millions of guns available, just fewer people choosing to use them for mass shooting. Why waste time, money, and effort on a no-win battle. Let us fight for positive change, as many are already doing. Proof of that effort is the number of people who chose to "turn their guns in" when communities have drives to do so.
A person can’t pull a trigger if they don’t possess a gun. But pace Ted I leave it at that.
A question for Joyce and Mary: With the current administration dismantling, whole departments, etc., clawing back funding etc. shutting down USAID, science, cutting back NASA and weather departments, etc. is anyone looking at the amount of taxes each state pays that used to support all the departments and organizations that are being dismantled ? and if so, where is the fight to address the amount of taxes state pay if everything is going to be shut off? I see taxes increasing yes, for most Americans under the big ugly bill to be funneled to the military, ice, tax break for billionaires, but if we are losing all the departments that help build society, isn’t there somewhere somebody calling against this taxation without representation? And then we know that California pays huge amounts of taxes to the government whereas a state like Louisiana pays nothing and gets revenue back. ? Will you please address this if possible. Thank you.
Christopher Armitage in the his substack talks about blue states holding onto federal taxes, as a an option.
Excellent question! As a resident of Southern California, I'd love nothing more than to see a reduction in my taxes.
ICE is evil. They’re a fascist masked cruel entity that preys on people just because of their skin color. This is profoundly un-American.
Thank you for the article Professor. This whole case is mind boggling. Sad for the victims families! See ya tomorrow!
If Trump were not a cult leader president, his daily felonies would render him ineligible for conviction on the grounds that his aggression reflected disinhibition due to an almost classical case of Frontal Lobe Dementia. 5-10 years before his 1st election, his syntax, prosody and vocabulary were pretty normal. He was slick, but contained, except with women in social situations. Personality change comes first, with impaired memory later on. It can take 10-20 years to express itself fully. He has deceived people because he was a rotten character before he became president, so much of his behavior has seemed a continuation of what came before. His well-honed showmanship has served him well as a cult leader. Nonetheless, you have to give him credit for unleashing the worst aspects of nearly half our country's citizens' psyches. Mary Trump, you warned everyone. Thank god you've been safe.
If leading a client out a side door is a felony for obstructing a federal agent, could they use this case to prosecute citizens using whistles to obstruct arrests? What's the line you can't cross? This case is infuriating and heartbreaking. She has worked her whole life to become a judge and now she can lose it all to a corrupt & vindictive DOJ.
How will this country, already unable to stop Trump and his banditos from ignoring almost all laws and president, survive three more years of this lopsided assault on our constitution and our values? We talk and shout, we occasionally march, and we claim victories, while the president and his prison monkeys destroy without consequence. If the strength of our protest of this first year of Trump's second term is the best we can muster, we're done.
What can be legally done to stop all of the destruction of institutions, national monuments and human lives that Trump is doing? Is there any legal way to stop him before he does more irreparable damage?
I ask the same question almost daily. Our representatives don’t respond to letters asking why are they so quiet about all the destruction. It’s seems to come in heaps daily.
THANK YOU Prof JOYce!!
Your work is much appreciated - I wish you a restful night...
We got more work to do tomorrow..TOGETHER!
If you want to know exactly what happened in this trial, as well as more facts of the case, read the following:
“Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan found guilty of felony obstruction”, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/18/25, https://apple.news/A-XBUwcZ-SASZeCDCYh9j1A
“Hannah Dugan colleague: 'Judges should not be helping defendants evade arrest'”, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/16/25, https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2025/12/16/fellow-judge-testifies-in-hannah-dugan-trial-on-impeding-us-agents/87737150007/
“Judge Convicted of Obstructing Agents as They Sought Undocumented Immigrant”, NYT, 12/18/25, gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/judge-hannah-dugan-trial-verdict.html?unlocked_article_code=1.908.MmdI.SYgp4ijWarB0&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Note in particular that the woman judge from the courtroom next door to Judge Dugan, one Judge Kristela Cervera, testified as a witness for the prosecution to convict Dugan. Also, the courtroom door through which Dugan led Mr. Flores-Ruiz opened into a hallway that was closed to the public and which had 2 doors, one leading to a stairwell out the building, and the other leading into the public hallway. The prosecution argued that Judge Dugan intended for Flores-Ruiz to take the staircase so that ICE couldn’t follow him, but that Flores-Ruiz and his attorney got confused and took the door leading to the public hallway instead, where ICE agents spotted him and arrested him.
Judge Kristela Cervera texted her sister, an attorney, after her joint interaction with Dugan and the ICE agents outside their courtrooms to warn her sister that ICE agents were in the building. It would not surprise me if the US Attorney told Judge Cervera that if she testified against Judge Dugan, the US Attorney would not prosecute her for obstruction by warning her attorney sister about the ICE agents.
Did Ivana Trump become an inconvenient ex?
Was Ivana Trump, before her untimely death, subpoenad to testify against her ex husband, or on matters that would implicate Donald? Perhaps for immunity?
Or, conversely, was Ivana paid for her silent loyalty? But ultimately got forever silenced? Maybe by a Russian down from Brighton Beach working for Putin protecting Epstein because Ivana knew too much?
Or did Ivana really fall down her own stairs to her death with heavy medications in her system?
Ivana's NDA was running out, which means she could tell everything about the Trump organization (she was djt's confidant) and about him. How could the coffee not spill out of her cup if she "fell down the stairs"? He had mentioned this scenario in the past. Coincidence? Why did it take 8 men (usually 6) to struggle lifting her coffin up the stairs to the church if she had been cremated. Papers and gold bars in the coffin? Buried on private property to prevent exhumation?
Unless there was jury tampering, this conviction only demonstrates the need to statutorily change the law that convicted Judge Dugan. This conviction is a travesty to justice and our courts everywhere.