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Wisconsin judge facing 6 years over illegal alien debacle turns to SCOTUS' Trump ruling to avoid consequence
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of the law. Dugan — who could land up to six years in prison if convicted for allegedly helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, get away from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — pleaded not guilty during her arraignment in federal court on Thursday.
Dugan's attorneys appear to think that the U.S. Supreme Court has provided her with the means to dodge accountability.
They noted in a Wednesday motion to dismiss the indictment obtained by Axios that "the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. 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."
Here, attorneys cited the Supreme Court's July 1, 2024, ruling in Trump v. United States, where a 6-3 majority determined that the president "may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts."
This is the ruling that prompted apoplexy among Democrats, demands for conservative justices to be impeached, and accusations that the high court was "consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control."
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Dugan's attorneys noted that even if "Judge Dugan took the actions the complaint alleges, these plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution," adding that "judges are empowered to maintain control over their courtrooms specifically and the courthouse generally."
'Unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional.'
The apparent suggestion is that the following actions, which the indictment accuses her of taking, were official acts:
- Confronting members of an ICE task force and "falsely telling them they needed a judicial warrant to effectuate the arrest of E.F.R.";
- Directing all members of the task force to leave the public hallway outside her courtroom and to go to the chief judge's office;
- Addressing the illegal alien's criminal case off the record while ICE agents were waiting in the chief judge's office;
- "Directing E.F.R. and his counsel to exit Courtroom 615 through a non-public jury door"; and
- Advising Flores-Ruiz's lawyer that the illegal alien could appear by Zoom for his next court date.
In Trump v. United States, the high court wrote:
In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives. Such a "highly intrusive" inquiry would risk exposing even the most obvious instances of official conduct to judicial examination on the mere allegation of improper purpose.
Dugan's attorneys further argued on the basis of this specific assertion by the high court that the Wisconsin judge's "subjective motivations are irrelevant to immunity."
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
"The government's prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional," wrote the attorneys. "Judge Dugan reserves her right to seek other relief, including by other motions before and at trial. But the immunity and federalism issues must be resolved swiftly because the government has no basis in law to prosecute her."
When asked about the use of the Supreme Court's ruling in this case, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Blaze News, "I don't think the analogy is appropriate in this case," adding, "the dispute is going to be whether she acted in her capacity as a judge."
"The government's response is going to be, 'What you did has nothing to do with judicial decision-making, the management of your court room. You went out; you interfered with federal law enforcement; you came back in, and ushered people out of the courtroom in a way to obstruct justice that had nothing to do with your so-called management in the courtroom,'" continued Fitton. "'This was a crime that was being committed in a courtroom, not by a judge, but by ... a person acting as a citizen, not as a judge.'"
Fitton suggested further that the Trump DOJ would likely appeal a ruling in Dugan's favor, in part due to the administration's "seriousness about protecting their agents and the public from these illegal alien criminals" and the possible emboldening impact such a ruling might have on other activist judges.
"It doesn't matter what line of work you are in. If you break the law, we will follow the facts, and we will prosecute you," Attorney General Pam Bondi said of the case last month.
Dugan, relieved of her duties as a judge last month by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, is next expected in court on July 9. Her trial is reportedly set for July 21.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman will preside over Dugan's case. That's likely good news for Dugan, as the Democratic lawmaker turned Clinton appointee has made no secret of his animus toward President Donald Trump and Republicans.
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Stacey Abrams' groups forced to pay largest campaign violation fine recorded in Georgia's history
Two groups founded by failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) that sided with alleged domestic terrorists in 2023 have been slapped with what the Georgia State Ethics Commission indicated Wednesday was both the largest fine it has ever imposed and possibly also "the largest Ethics Fine ever imposed by any State Ethics Commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case."
Abrams and her groups have been embroiled in scandals for over a decade. Atlanta Magazine reported in 2015, around the time Abrams' groups were apparently siphoning millions of dollars in donations and turning out pitiful results, that funders were keen to know where their money went. The late state Sen. Vincent Fort stated, "[Abrams] hasn't been open and transparent."
Influence Watch noted that in its first years, Abrams' nonprofit New Georgia Project — whose stated mission is "to build power with and increase the civic participation of ... black, Latinx, AAPI, and young Georgians ... and other historically marginalized communities" — not only failed to meet its quotas but was accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration applications and paying over $1.5 million to a D.C.-based voter registration firm instead of doing the work itself. Meanwhile, Abrams was accused of taking a massive salary while working for only 20 hours per week for the organization.
When it came time for Abrams to announce her ill-fated gubernatorial bid in 2017, her groups were apparently ready to engage in far more consequential wrongdoing on her behalf.
In 2019, a Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission attorney filed complaints alleging that the NGP engaged in substantial election spending in 2018 and 2019 without registering or filing the required disclosures. In the investigation that ensued, the commission subpoenaed the NGP's bank records and invoices.
'This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections.'
The commission alleged in 2022 that Abrams' New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund had failed to disclose over $3 million worth of electioneering expenses and over $4 million in political contributions between 2017 and 2019. Axios noted at the time that the commission argued the action fund and the nonprofit operated as a single entity but neglected to register as a super PAC or "independent committee" and failed to detail electioneering expenses.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock (Ga.) was CEO of the scandal-plagued outfit in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The commission advanced the complaint in August 2022, having determined that the NGP and its corresponding action fund had violated campaign ethics laws at least eight times. It turns out that the group was apparently guilty of many more violations than first thought.
The Georgia State Ethics Commission noted Wednesday, several six- and seven-figure NGP financial discrepancies later, that "this represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered."
The current leaders of Abrams' group admitted in the consent decree, unanimously approved by the ethics board and released Wednesday, to 16 instances of illegal activity and agreed to pay a fine of $300,000 for violating state law.
David Fox, a lawyer for the NGP and action fund, told commissioners over video, "The matter relates to events from more than five years ago, and respondents are eager to put the matter behind them," reported the Associated Press.
Michael Brewer, a spokesman for Warnock's Senate office, suggested that the Democrat who was listed as CEO of the NGP during the time of its worst known abuses knew nothing of the violations.
David Emadi, executive director of the commission, said of Warnock's potential culpability, "I'm not prepared to say he had direct involvement in this."
Politico noted that a spokesman for Abrams did not respond to its request for comment.
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Joe Rogan questions Sen. Fetterman about scheme to use illegal aliens to 'rig' swing states for Democrats
Tens of millions of illegal aliens have stolen into the U.S. since January 2021, killing citizens, tracking in lethal drugs and once-controlled diseases, siphoning taxpayer-funded welfare benefits, displacing schoolchildren, and in some cases, threatening the integrity of American elections.
Rather than take ownership for the deadly crisis, border czar Kamala Harris has repeatedly blamed President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers for the failure of the so-called "bipartisan" border bill, which Democrats have memorialized as a kind of would-be panacea.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) did his best to amplify this narrative on the Saturday episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," but the titular host made clear he wasn't buying what the senator was selling. Rogan suggested that Democrats aren't looking for a solution to the border crisis but are instead using the border crisis to solve their problem of incomplete political control.
'You're rigging the system.'
When discussing the matter of immigration, Fetterman told Rogan, "Democrats are saying, 'Hey though, we need a secure border, we — you know — it's a significant issue.' And if I thought there was any kinds of issues and I've been very vigilant throughout, I've been actively involved in those kinds of things, and I've never witnessed those kinds of a thing."
"What do you mean by 'issues?'" said Rogan. "Like, what kind of issues are you talking about? You're talking about people letting people in, in order to get votes?"
"Well, it's not, there's not that level kinds. I don't think there's that level of kinds of organization," responded the senator.
Rogan balked at the suggestion that the crisis underway is not courtesy of some coordinated efforts, stating:
But there is a [level of] organization that's moving these people to swing states. There is a significant number of these people that are illegal immigrants that have made their way to swing states. And then there's been calls for amnesty. There's been calls for allowing these people to have a pathway to citizenship and allow them to vote. The fear that a lot of people have is that this is a coordinated effort to take these people that you're allowing to come into the country, then you're providing them with all sorts of services like food stamps and housing and setting them up, and then providing a pathway to amnesty. And then you would have voters that would be significantly voting towards the Democrats because they're the people that enabled them to come into the country in the first place, first place and provided them with those services.
"This is a big fear that people have," added Rogan, "that you're rigging the system and that this will turn all these states into essentially locked-blue like California is."
This fear was recently expressed by Elon Musk, who noted on his social media platform, "The Dems have imported massive numbers of illegals to swing states. Triple digit increases over the past 4 years! Their STATED plan is to give them citizenship as soon as possible, turning all swing states Dem. America would then become a one-party, deep blue socialist state."
Musk was referencing data that suggested the Biden-Harris administration was flooding red states with inadmissible migrants under the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela program.
'The apportionment of House seats and votes in the Electoral College among the states is based on total population — not citizenship or legal status.'
Rogan's suggestion left Fetterman stammering. After re-centering himself with the defeatist suggestion, "Immigration is always going to be a tough issue in our nation," the senator proceeded to recycle Harris' suggestion that the "bipartisan" border bill was a step in the right direction but was ultimately tripped up by Trump.
"They had an opportunity to do a comprehensive border, bipartisan [bill] and that went down because Trump, he declared that, that, that's, that's a bad deal after it was negotiated with the other side," said Fetterman, glossing over Democrats' rejection of the robust Secure the Border Act of 2023 from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) just months earlier.
Having evidently looked into the specifics of the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, H. R. 815, Rogan responded, "But didn't that deal also involve amnesty? And didn't that deal also involve a significant number of illegal aliens being allowed into the country every year? I think it was 2 million people."
Blaze News previously reported that the bill included emergency authority provisions that would enable the federal government to shut down the border if the average number of illegal alien encounters reached between 4,000 and 5,000 per day for seven consecutive days. Over 1.4 million illegal aliens could therefore steal into the country without triggering a clamp down.
"So it was still the same sort of situation," continued Rogan. "Their fear is exactly what I talked about: that these people will be moved to swing states and that will be used to essentially rig those states and turn them blue forever."
When Fetterman attempted to dive back into empty rhetoric, Rogan intimated that it only took Republicans tens of thousands of votes across several counties to win certain states in 2016, so tens of millions of illegal aliens, strategically placed then rendered loyal to Democrats with handouts and amnesty, could "rig those states undeniably."
Steven Camarota, the director of research for the Center of Immigration Studies, noted in a recent op-ed that illegal aliens don't necessarily have to vote to impact American elections.
The apportionment of House seats and votes in the Electoral College among the states is based on total population — not citizenship or legal status. The Census Bureau is clear that naturalized citizens, as well as non-citizens such as green card holders, foreign students, guestworkers and illegal immigrants are captured in the census every 10 years.
Accordingly, political operatives playing the long game need only deluge blue states with illegal aliens to increase their representation in Congress and the Electoral College.
Because the legal and illegal immigrant population is so large and unevenly distributed across the country, it causes some states to gain seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Electoral College at the expense of others.
A Center for Immigration Studies investigation revealed last week that the inclusion of legal and illegal immigrants in the 2020 census shifted 17 House seats.
Fetterman told Rogan, "Immigration is changing our nation," stressing that it is "generally for a good thing."
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Latest alleged rape and murder of a young American by illegal aliens pinned on Biden
Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl, was brutally murdered on June 17. A pair of illegal aliens from Venezuela who stole into the nation under the Biden administration's watch allegedly lured the girl under a bridge, stripped her, tied her up, subjected her to hours of sexual torment, strangled her, then tossed her lifeless body in a swampy creek near the North Freeway.
Nungaray's body was found by Billie Jackson, who was driving home from dropping off her husband. Jackson told KTRK-TV, "I drove past, and when I looked up the creek, I thought it was a mannequin. I did a U-turn, and I stopped on the bridge, put my flashers on, looked down, and realized it was someone. I parked right here and called 911 immediately."
The Houston Police Department confirmed Thursday that suspects Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, — whom the Associated Press was apparently keen not to identify as illegal aliens — were charged with capital murder in the 232nd State District Court.
Nungary's suspected killers. (Houston Police Department)
Nungaray, whose committal service is scheduled for Thursday, is one of the latest in a seemingly interminable series of American innocents victimized by foreign nationals whom the Biden administration has failed to keep out or send packing.
Earlier this month, an illegal alien from Ecuador who stole into the country months after Biden took power reportedly came upon two teens hanging out in Queens park, drew a "large machete-style knife," then forced them to a remote area of the park, where he allegedly raped the young girl.
Another illegal alien suspected of raping and murdering beloved Maryland mother of five Rachel Morin was also arrested this month. Harford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler indicated there's a good chance Morin was not the illegal alien's first victim, reported WBFF-TV.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have underscored who they believe is ultimately to blame for this grisly trend.
"We have a new Biden Migrant Killing," Trump wrote on his platform. "It's only going to get worse, and it's all Crooked Joe Biden's fault. He's a disgrace to the Office of the President, he's a disgrace to America."
Trump signaled interest in having Biden explain at Thursday's presidential debate "why he has allowed MILLIONS of people to come into our Country illegally!"
Not including the month of June, over 1.69 million illegal aliens have already stolen across the southern border this fiscal year. Nearly 1 million of those were single adults.
The Trump campaign echoed the candidate on X, noting, "The brutal murders of these Americans is on the hands of Biden — and the evil Biden migrants he released into our country."
The House Committee on Homeland Security explained in a breakdown last week that the Biden administration set the stage for these kinds of murders and rapes by illegal aliens, in part, by ending "policies and practices that could have prevented these tragedies" such as the "remain in Mexico policy." The congressional committee also noted that the Biden administration's under-use of detention all but ensures that illegal aliens like Nungaray's suspected killers end up roaming the land, free of accountability.
The committee further noted that the notion that illegal aliens crossing the border can be adequately vetted or screened is a sick joke with a frequently deadly punch line delivered at citizens' expense. Additionally, the committed stressed that the so-called "bipartisan Senate border bill" Biden frequently suggests would have served as a corrective would have done nothing to prevent these tragedies.
Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said, "These tragedies could have been avoided if the Biden administration would simply enforce the laws they swore to uphold. It's truly that simple."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a statement last week, "These men are illegal aliens and Jocelyn Nungaray would still be alive and with her family if not for Joe Biden’s open border policies. The Biden administration is directly responsible."
Extra to advocating that both illegal aliens should receive the death penalty if found guilty, Cruz said that Nungaray's family deserves justice in the way of meaningful remedies to the problem of illegal immigration.
"Joe Biden is out of excuses: He must reinstate Remain in Mexico and end catch-and-release immediately, or we will lose more innocent life. There is no time for half measures — we need to look at what works, and do it now," said Cruz.
When the White House released what appeared to be template responses to the deaths of Morin and Nungaray, Tuberville wrote, "Shameful. Innocent people were murdered by illegal immigrants and the @WhiteHouse still REFUSES to accept responsibility."
The Biden campaign has desperately attempted to displace blame, suggesting the fault instead lies with Biden's opponent, who has been out of office for years.
"Donald Trump is making Americans less safe by blocking the border deal," Lauren Hitt, a Biden campaign spokeswoman, told NBC News.
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