Federal trial to begin for Milwaukee judge accused of helping undocumented man evade arrest
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan walks into the Milwaukee Federal Courthouse on May 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The federal trial is set to start on Monday for a Wisconsin judge accused of concealing an undocumented man to prevent his arrest by immigration authorities.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in a two-count federal indictment that alleges she obstructed official Department of Homeland Security removal proceedings and knowingly concealed the man from immigration authorities at a courthouse in April.
She has pleaded not guilty.
Opening statements are expected to get underway on Monday in the Milwaukee trial, following jury selection last week.
Prosecutors have told the court they expect to have 25 to 28 witnesses.
Dugan could face up to six years in prison if convicted as charged.
According to federal prosecutors, Dugan encountered federal agents who were at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on April 18 to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was appearing in her courtroom on a battery charge.
Prosecutors say that after speaking to the agents, Dugan directed them to the chief judge’s office down the hall and then sent Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a non-public door in an alleged attempt, authorities claim, to help him evade arrest on immigration violations.
Dugan’s lawyers have called her arrest “virtually unprecedented” and sought to dismiss the case, arguing she has judicial immunity for official acts and her prosecution is unconstitutional. Judge Lynn Adelman denied the motion, finding there was “no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job.'”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan in the wake of her arrest, stating in an order it was “in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.”
Flores-Ruiz, a native of Mexico, was later arrested and charged with unlawful reentry into the U.S.
He was sentenced to time served earlier this month after pleading guilty to the charge, federal court records show. DHS said last month he had been deported.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing the Maryland deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Monday denied the government’s request to delay proceedings because of the government shutdown.
The ruling came Monday during a status conference held in the case of Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man deported in error to El Salvador last March and then returned back to the United States in June to face criminal charges in Tennessee.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said she she felt “duty bound” to continue the case given its importance and the fundamental questions it raises about deportation policies.
The government was prohibited from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, but now seeks to deport him to another country, including possibly Uganda or Eswatini. Judge Xinis has currently banned the government from removing Abrego Garcia from the continental United States.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued that the only reason for detention after there are orders of removal is to effectuate that removal. If there are no current plans for his imminent removal, they argued, then Abrego Garcia should be released from detention. Government attorneys pointed to previous court decisions that indicate they have six months’ leeway.
Judge Xinis appeared exasperated Monday with government attorneys who could not answer if there was additional evidence about removal plans to Eswatini beyond letters sent to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.
“That’s not a tenable position. You’ve either done it or you haven’t,” she said. “It’s not a hard question, guys”
Government attorneys were unable to find anyone who could address the judge’s questions about what efforts had been made to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, citing the government shutdown as one possible reason.
The judge gave the government until Wednesday afternoon to file any evidence about steps taken to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini. She also asked the government to provide witnesses who can speak firsthand to those efforts.
“I am asking you really basic questions,” Xinis said. “What’s been done … have you had any conversations?”
A hearing is scheduled for Friday.
“This case is not just about one man. It is about the integrity of the U.S. Constitution,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, chief of organizing and leadership at the immigration rights group CASA, said at a press conference outside the courthouse prior to the hearing. “We need to continue to raise collective conscience as we continue to witness the inhumane retaliation by our government to a man and his family who are simply demanding due process.”
“Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal Defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in a court filing.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys had asked that the court deny the government’s request, and also, in light of the government’s position, to allow Abrego Garcia to be released from detention.
“The mere fact that the Government is seeking to extend all deadlines in this case indefinitely shows that there is no significant likelihood that Petitioner will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future. Accordingly, there is no justification for continuing Petitioner’s detention,” his lawyers wrote in a reply.
Abrego Garcia is currently being detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania.
Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States from El Salvador in June to face criminal charges of human smuggling in Tennessee. The judge in that case released him into his brother’s custody in Maryland. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials then indicated that he could potentially be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to the ICE field office in Baltimore.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers in the Tennessee case have filed a motion to dismiss based on their claim of the prosecution being vindictive. A judge this past week determined that the “totality of events” creates a sufficient basis that there was a “realistic likelihood” that the government may have acted vindictively and entitles Abrego Garcia to discovery and a hearing on the matter before the court makes a decision on the motion.
A status conference is set for Friday in Nashville.
In a separate immigration court ruling last week, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his original immigration case. His lawyers had argued that his deportation and return to the U.S. had reset the clock on making an asylum claim, but the judge did not agree, closing that potential path to preventing deportation.
ABC News’ Rebecca Gelpi contributed to this report.
Sean Combs — (Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Sean “Diddy” Combs is asking a federal appeals court to expedite his appeal of his conviction on two prostitution-related charges, arguing he could finish his prison sentence before his appeal is heard on a normal timetable.
Combs is appealing his conviction and his more than four-year sentence.
“An expedited briefing and argument schedule is critical to ensure that Mr. Combs’s appeal of his sentence does not become moot while the appeal is pending,” defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said in a new filing.
She said Combs has already served approximately 14 months of his 50-month sentence, and it is unclear how much additional time he will ultimately serve due to his potential eligibility for reductions.
Earlier this week, the Bureau of Prisons posted what the agency believes to be Combs’ release date from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which is set for May 8, 2028 — although it can change.
Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution after an eight-week trial in July. The jury acquitted Combs of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges he faced.
In his appeal, Combs plans to argue to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prosecutors misapplied the law.
“Sean’s appeal will challenge the unfair use of the Mann Act, an infamous statute with a sordid history, to prosecute him for sex with consenting adults,” Shapiro said.
He has said his counts of conviction should not apply because he had no financial motive for transporting male escorts. Instead he said he wanted to watch them have sex with his girlfriends.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — Minutes after publicly identifying the suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox condemned social media.
“Social media is a cancer on our society right now,” Cox told reporters during a press conference two days after Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University. “I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass.”
Sen. James Langford, R-Okla., echoed such criticism days later. “Social media is always pushing who’s the angriest, who’s the loudest, who says the craziest thing, that’s what gets repeated over and over and over again,” Langford said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Co., described social media as “deeply corrosive.”
Some experts who spoke to ABC News blamed social media for amplifying public rancor and spreading graphic imagery, but they stopped short of identifying online platforms as a lone, direct cause of political violence. Social media has likely worsened a risk rooted in factors like social discord, inflammatory rhetoric from prominent figures and the availability of firearms, they said.
“Social media is certainly a contributing factor, but it’s like pouring gasoline on a fire — it’s not the fire itself,” Robert Pape, a political scientist and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago, told ABC News.
On Sept. 10, Kirk was shot and killed while on stage at Utah Valley University for the first stop on his latest speaking tour of college campuses. The alleged gunman, identified by police as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested almost 48 hours later and faces several charges, including aggravated murder.
Robinson’s apparent use of the online platform Discord and video games drew attention to whether such online networks may play a role in stoking political violence, though details of their possible impact on Robinson remain limited.
Discord confirmed that two hours before Robinson was taken into custody, he was posting on the platform and allegedly told a small group of friends: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all … It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the Discord message during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, saying that the FBI is investigating “anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat” with Robinson. Patel said there are “a lot more” than 20 people linked to Robinson on Discord, “and we’re running them all down. … Every single one.”
X did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did TikTok. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Discord told ABC News the company has not “found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord.”
“We continue to work closely with the FBI and local authorities, and will continue to deliver prompt responses to their requests for assistance,” Discord added.
Discord forbids “hateful conduct or the use of hate speech” on the platform, the company’s website says. “We define hate speech as any expression that degrades, vilifies, or dehumanizes individuals, incites hostility towards specific groups, or promotes harm based on protected characteristics.”
Last year, a Meta spokesperson told researchers at New York University: “We want our platforms to be a place where people can safely express themselves. That’s why we take action on content, like hate speech, bullying, or harassment, that violates our Community Standards and why we continue to invest in new technologies and methods to help protect people on our services.”
Lisa Hayes, head of safety public policy and senior counsel for the Americas at TikTok, told the NYU researchers the company takes down more than 98% of material posted by hateful organizations and individuals and works with experts “to keep ahead of evolving trends.”
On its website, X says: “We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized. For this reason, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals or groups with abuse based on their perceived membership in a protected category. “
Video footage of the fatal shooting circulated widely on social media platforms in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s killing, raising concerns among some observers about the effects that may result from mass exposure to such graphic imagery.
Some experts underscored the elevated risk of political violence created by social media, saying its algorithms favor provocative posts that induce user engagement but exacerbate political division. Additionally, in some cases, social media can largely replace a user’s in-person interactions, leaving them socially isolated, some experts added.
“We are at a very dangerous moment with social media, especially having a large population of highly alienated individuals spending most, if not all, of their time in this virtual space,” Walter Scheirer, a professor of engineering at Notre Dame University who studies online disinformation, told ABC News.
Pape, who regularly conducts surveys on political violence in partnership with NORC, said his research has found heavy users of social media — those who spend six to eight hours on the platforms each day — are more likely to support political violence. However, such individuals are relatively unusual, making up as little as 10% of those who support political violence, Pape said.
Last year, researchers at New York University and Public Circle Research, a private firm, who reviewed 400 studies related to the topic, found social media is “exploited to facilitate political intimidation and violence.”
“These conclusions are quite different from saying that social media alone causes political violence,” the researchers noted, citing other factors like partisan cable news and attackers prone to violence.
Experts who spoke to ABC News also pointed to other factors behind a rise in political violence, such as hostile rhetoric put forward by public figures and access to guns.
“Social media allows for the amplification of a message that’s already happening. If we look at the rhetoric in the U.S. over time, the language politicians are using to describe their domestic political opponents has gotten much harsher and more aggressive. Social media isn’t the cause of that, but it can amplify those voices,” Thomas Zeitzoff, a professor of justice, law and criminology at American University, told ABC News.
Some experts cited previous waves of political violence, such as a spate of assassinations in the late 1960s, which predated online platforms.
Robert Shapiro, a professor of government and public affairs at Columbia University, questioned whether the removal of social media would meaningfully reduce the likelihood of political violence. “There’s more than enough political conflict out there to provoke violence,” Shapiro told ABC News.
The killing of Kirk comes amid a wave of political violence. Over recent months, a gunman fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home and another Minnesota state lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded by the same gunman.
During that same period, two staff members at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed after an event at the city’s Jewish Museum.
Over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump survived two assassination attempts.
“This is something we’re not used to seeing in our country,” Pape said. “It hasn’t been our normal, but it’s our new normal now.”
