THE NEWS

A Wisconsin judge pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that she obstructed federal agents seeking to detain an illegal immigrant in her courtroom.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan entered her plea during a Wednesday morning arraignment in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, one day after she was indicted by a federal grand jury following her April arrest by the FBI on charges that she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney slide out the side of her courtroom on April 18 when ICE agents showed up to arrest him. 

Dugan was charged with obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

The two-page indictment accuses Dugan of confronting members of ICE and lying to them about needing a judicial warrant to conduct their operation. Dugan faces a maximum penalty of 6 years in prison and up to $350,000 in fines.

On Wednesday, Dugan claimed ‘judicial immunity’ – citing President Trump’s Supreme Court ruling from last year.

“The problems with this prosecution are legion, but most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts,” her lawyers wrote in a motion filed on Wednesday. “Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” they wrote, citing Trump v. United States.

In her motion to dismiss, Dugan’s lawyers quote from the Trump immunity ruling, where it said, “In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives.” They quoted that line to support the argument that her “subjective motivations are irrelevant to immunity.” They also cite the Trump immunity ruling’s quotation of a prior precedent that said the essence of immunity is the immunity possessor not having to answer for their conduct in court. “Judge Dugan therefore has both immunity from conviction and immunity from prosecution,” they wrote. –MSNBC

According to her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, “as she said after her unnecessary arrest, Judge Dugan asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court.”

The state Supreme Court suspended Dugan while she contests charges of concealing Flores Ruiz and obstructing ICE.

On the day she was arrested, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said “If you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are, if you are helping hide…anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

FBI director Kash Patel said investigators believe Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents” away from Flores-Ruiz, as officers were preparing to arrest him in the courthouse where the judge works.

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz – who was previously deported to his home country in 2013, was accused in a domestic violence case assigned to Dugan, according to officials. 

Milwaukee County court and police records reveal more information about the incident that landed Flores Ruiz in Dugan’s court on three domestic abuse-battery charges.

Three people told police that Flores Ruiz injured them during a March 12 verbal and physical altercation, after which two of them sought hospital treatment.

Miguel Mendoza-Figueroa alleged that Flores Ruiz “intentionally … struck him multiple times in his body and face, causing pain and scratches during a verbal argument about loud music,” the police report says. 

The man reported being punched about 30 times.

When Deyci Torres Sierra, identified as Miguel’s girlfriend, tried to intervene, Flores Ruiz “struck her multiple times in her head” with his fist, inflicting pain, the report says.

A second woman, Maria Sierra Chihuahua, said she, too, tried to break up the fight, and Flores Ruiz “elbowed her in her upper left arm.”

Police said that, when questioned at the scene, Flores Ruiz described the incident as “a mutual fight” between himself and Mendoza-Figueroa, a court record shows.

In Other News

Trump’s pick for US Attorney for New Jersey, his former attorney Alina Habba, appeared on Wednesday in court to prosecute Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for raiding an ICE facility last week.

BREAKING: Alena Habba arrives outside Newark court for Newark Mayor for Ras Baraka’s hearing following ICE arrest outside Delaney Hall

Video by @peterhvideo @FreedomNTV Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/0uplFCCBzF

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 15, 2025

Baraka was arrested for trespassing at an ICE center in New Jersey – arriving at the facility with a cadre of protesters and Democrat representatives.  He is seen in bodycam in an argument with officers and apparently refusing to leave the area, at least initially.  The details of the arrest are not yet clear, but the establishment media is running with the narrative that this is political persecution on the part of the Trump Administration.

The arrest led to an angry flurry by protesters including at least one Dem representative who seemed to physically attack officers.  Democratic representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez visited the center known as Delaney Hall on Friday saying they wanted to “inspect” the facility.  Their posture became confrontational when they were apparently denied entry.

The US Senate could pass a key bipartisan stablecoin bill as soon as next week after removing language targeting President Donald Trump and his family’s sprawling crypto interests.

As Jesse Coghlan reports below for CoinTelegraph, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said onstage at an event by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand With Crypto, that she thinks it’s a “fair target” to have the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, passed by May 26 — Memorial Day in the US.

Joining her onstage was Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who hinted that the bill’s language was changed to scrap provisions that targeted Trump’s various crypto projects, which include memecoins, a crypto platform, a stablecoin and a crypto mining company that plans to go public, among others.

“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, and bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” Gillibrand said.

“Things beyond just ‘what’s the structure?’ and ‘what’s required for an issuer?’”

Senate Democrats pulled support for the bill on May 8 and stalled its momentum, airing concerns that it wouldn’t help address multiple crypto-tied deals that will personally enrich Trump.

“A lot of what President Trump is engaged in is already illegal,” Gillibrand said. 

“I also think his issuance of a memecoin is illegal based on current law.”

“It’s literally offering anyone who wants to curry favor with the administration to just send him money — that’s about as illegal as it gets.”

“I’m not so worried about this bill having to deal with all President Trump’s ethics problems. What this bill is really intended to do is regulate the entire space of stablecoins,” she added.

Source: Brian Armstrong

Gillibrand said the revised bill includes “some ethics requirements,” but it was “not an ethics bill.”

“If we were dealing with all President Trump’s ethics problems, it would be a very long and detailed bill,” she added.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, also on stage, was hopeful the Senate would vote on the stablecoin bill “early next week.”

Armstrong, whose company cozied up to Trump by donating $1 million to his inauguration fund, declined to comment when asked if the President’s memecoin could impact the passage of bipartisan crypto bills.

“It’s not my place to really comment on President Trump’s activity,” he said. 

“What I do think is important is that this bill remains focused on stablecoins.”

Crypto bills “absolutely critical” to pass before midterms

The crypto industry is pushing for Congress to pass the GENIUS Act and a Republican-drafted crypto market structure bill before the midterm elections on Nov. 3, 2026, where all 435 House seats and a third of the 100 Senate seats are up for election.

“We have a very narrow window to get legislation through between now and the midterms,” Marta Belcher, the president of the crypto lobby group the Blockchain Association, told Cointelegraph at the Consensus conference in Toronto.

“I strongly suspect that window is going to close very quickly. I don’t know if we’re going to get another window like this to get legislation through,” she added.

“It’s absolutely critical that we get it through now, especially because there really is a real possibility that in the future we end up with an administration that is hostile to crypto.”

The association’s communications director, Chris Jonas, added that it’s critical the bills pass before Congress takes a recess for the month of August.

“Once you get into the calendar year of the midterms, historically not a lot of legislation moves, so that’s why it’s so critical,” he explained.

Trump should be on track to sign both crypto bills before the August break, according to Bo Hines, the executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.

Hines noted on stage at Consensus on May 13 that negotiations on both bills are still ongoing, but it was “the President’s desire” to sign both “stablecoin legislation and market structure legislation before the August recess.”