WASHINGTON — The FBI arrested a county judge in Milwaukee on Friday, alleging that she obstructed the detention of an undocumented immigrant who was wanted by federal authorities, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News.
The arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan marks a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, in line with the administration’s rhetoric about going after local and state authorities on immigration-related matters.
Dugan was arrested by the FBI and is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, the senior law enforcement official said. The official told NBC News that Dugan was arrested at about 8:30 a.m. local time in the parking lot of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, before she entered the building. She was then transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
Court documents related to the arrest were not yet available on Friday.
The news broke in a since-deleted post on X from FBI Director Kash Patel, in which he wrote that the bureau believed that Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents” when the “subject to be arrested” had appeared in Dugan’s court on a separate case.
Patel said that agents “chased down the perp on foot,” but said that Hagan’s “obstruction created increased danger to the public.
The deputy court clerk for Judge Dugan told NBC News that they could not comment on the arrest, and the chief judge of the court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gary Grumbach and Tom Winter contributed.