Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is seeking to dismiss her federal obstruction case, which she said was based on an official act and therefore she was immune, citing a 2024 Supreme Court ruling involving President Donald Trump.
Following her arrest last month, Dugan was charged with obstructing a federal agency and concealing a person wanted for arrest in a grand jury indictment handed down Tuesday evening. She is accused of helping an illegal immigrant, who appeared before her court, evade arrest last month by federal immigration officers.
Dugan’s lawyers argued in the Wednesday filing that the charges against her should be dismissed, saying “this is no ordinary criminal case” and that she is “no ordinary criminal defendant.”
“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. 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,” Dugan’s lawyers said, citing Trump v. United States.
The 2024 Supreme Court decision in Trump v. United States found that a president has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority” and has “presumptive immunity” for all official acts. The decision still permitted unofficial acts by the president to be prosecuted.
Dugan argued that the alleged actions took place in her courtroom, which she controls, and are, therefore, judicial acts that cannot be prosecuted.
“Even if (contrary to what the trial evidence would show) Judge Dugan took the actions the complaint alleges, these plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution. Judges are empowered to maintain control over their courtrooms specifically and the courthouse generally,” Dugan’s lawyers argued in the motion to dismiss.
MILWAUKEE JUDGE HANNAH DUGAN INDICTED BY FEDERAL GRAND JURY IN DEPORTATION CASE
Dugan’s first hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin is scheduled for Thursday. She is expected to enter a plea at that hearing.
The embattled Milwaukee judge has been temporarily suspended from her duties by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.