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SPEAKER 2
Hey everybody, Tim Miller from The Bulwark here with Managing Editor Sam Stein. We have breaking news. FBI Director Cash Patel says that he has arrested a judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the charge of obstructing the arrest of an immigrant, an arrest, an FBI operation to arrest an immigrant, I guess, in her court.
0:21
I'm going to read the tweet from Cash Patel that he's since deleted. So we'll get into that in a second. But he wrote, just now the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Duggan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction after evidence of Judge Duggan obstructing an immigration arrest operation.
0:38
We believe Judge Duggan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Ruiz. allowing the subject and illegal alien to evade arrest. Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he's been in custody since, but the judge's obstruction increased increased, created increased danger to the public.

FBI agents arrested a Milwaukee judge for allegedly obstructing an immigration arrest in her courtroom. Tim Miller and Sam Stein break down what this shocking move means, how it fits into Trump’s broader strategy of intimidation, and why it could have a chilling effect on the justice system.

The Bulwark Tips

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan arrested, charged with 2 felonies in ICE case

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Discussion about this video

User's avatar
Nancy Seals's avatar

Boy I hope so

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Diane Gerdes's avatar

I believe this is a wakeup call for the Supreme Court to finally arrest people in this administration!!! Trump will also be impeached very soon. The Supreme Court might have to use the military to arrest, If the U.S. Marshals don't do their job.We also need to arrest Pam Bondi ,Cash Patal, and Pete Hegseth . It's time they went a bridge to far.The Supreme Court won't allow their power to be taken away.Judge Amy has a couple of adopted children that aren't white, she won't put up with this.

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Charles's avatar

Charles from Australia. Besides the fear and trauma of living in fear of arrest, then the actual arrest.

What happens to the property like home, car and person items of people that are arrested and deported? Do that locals grab that property for their gain? Treasures like family photo albums do they go in the rubbish?

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Maureen Whittemore's avatar

Chilling effect? I think this only serves to piss off Americans even more than we are pissed off now. I think this administration severely underestimates the power of an angry citizenship and they are about to find out as united, we once again take to the streets, to the courthouses, to the government buildings, to the town halls, to the city centers, to the school campuses, to every state capital, to ICE detention centers, to Washington DC, to town parks, to wherever injustice has occurred...we will be there. The only chilling effect this administration is going to see is a self-inflicted economic disaster of epic proportions unless congress can stop them...

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Tom Leitko's avatar

Trump picks situations like these for PR reasons. This draws liberals into defending a judge who is protecting an illegal immigrant spouse abuser.

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Andrea Jones's avatar

One of the reasons they are hitting immigration so hard because it’s the ONLY area Donny’s not underwater in the polls. Just, FFS🤬

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Nickson's avatar

Apparently he’s now underwater on immigration too. The due process thing has legs. Also, defying the Supreme Court doesn’t poll well. The Orange O-Ring miscalculated.

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Donny Evans's avatar

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested for respecting constitutional limits.

ICE agents stalk courtrooms and citizenship offices.

Tyranny now carries a badge. ⚖️🆘

https://open.substack.com/pub/iamdonnyevans/p/arresting-judges-ambushing-immigrants?r=5dsl4z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

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monoview21's avatar

So, The Don speaks out of both sides of his mouth and mostly out of his ass. His diaper must be getting full and Stephen Miller needs to change it. Once again, my thesaurus has run out of words. Any judges or "other immigrant" obstructors of justice been ICED in any MAGA infested areas?

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Greg D's avatar

Are Churches helping immigrants next?

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Working Theories's avatar

Meanwhile they want to give my 3 teenage daughters a medal if they will have a bunch of kids b/c the birth rate just keeps dropping….hmmm, let’s try you keep the immigrants who want to stay and are otherwise law-abiding here and my girls get to have however many kids they want without the f-ing insulting manipulations. And if you are going to manipulate at least provide something more substantive than a stupid 🏅

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Cath62's avatar

They may be trying to intimidate, but the public, from what I can see, is pissed. I've seen impromptu protests after this arrest in both Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Milwaukee was trying to prepare for this a couple of weeks ago when 2 or 3 people were nabbed by ICE in our courthouse. Our city council was putting a process in place for further ICE activity. Not sure where it got to, but Milwaukee...Wisconsin will fight.

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Jackie Banks's avatar

Kind of sounds like what MBS did to the Washington Post journalist in Turkey, but without the murder.

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Jim's avatar

There was a case like this in Boston.

From Politico:

"In 2018, Massachusetts state District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and a court officer were accused of helping an undocumented migrant sneak out of the Newton District Court in Newton, Massachusetts, before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer could detain him. The man was arrested on narcotics charges and had been deported from the U.S. twice, prosecutors said at the time.

Joseph was later indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice and pleaded not guilty.

At the time Joseph was charged, then-state Attorney General Maura Healey, now the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, claimed it represented “a radical and politically motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts.”

Joseph’s attorney at the time, Thomas Hoopes, accused then-U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling of “political bias” in court documents — pointing to a Boston Herald op-ed he authored — and accusing him of leaking confidential information to the media.

Unlike the case Friday, however, Joseph surrendered to authorities. And federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against her in 2022. Joseph was instead referred to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, a state agency charged with investigating allegations of misconduct among those admitted to the bench."

Late last year, the commission filed formal charges against Joseph with the state’s highest court, a surprisingly forceful step for a body that has only gone so far five other times since 2000.

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Ellen Thomas's avatar

Without knowing the details, I am pretty confident that this is going to turn out to be an outrage that should be protested and fought. BUT why is it happening now? Trump does outrageous things when he wants to wrest back control of the conversation. Is it the economy? The bad polling? Hegseth? Abrego Gracia? Any and all are possible. The very difficult thing is to figure out how to address new outrages without letting the old ones drop. Lots of complaints about Dems here, but I would hate to have to figure out how to do all of that.

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Marla Stewart's avatar

Don't you think Trump sent minion Kash to arrest this particular judge in Wisconsin because he and Elon were pissed and embarrassed that Wisconsin voted in the Dem judge (Judge Crawford) to the open state Supreme Court position? Another retribution and scare and silencing tactic against the judiciary - performative as fuck.

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Ellen Thomas's avatar

This is a very good point, and seems quite likely.

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Greg Conners's avatar

Judges will now be traveling everywhere with law enforcement protection - against the FBI and ICE. This will get worse before it gets better. John Roberts, curb your freaking dog.

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Lynn Krems's avatar

Can anybody explain why all the government antrauge always tweets of what? Their greatest achieveme? Or is FBI is responding to Elon's what 5 things did you do this week?

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Ben Johnson's avatar

Hey feds who arrest judges on unconstitutional orders. Better think about how you look in orange, because your time is going to come.

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Winter East Brown's avatar

If you study narcissistic personality types, you will find that this is a strategy that all narcissistic people follow. Because narcissist will never take accountability for their behavior. What Trump is doing by giving authority to all these people is taking the accountability off of his own shoulders. So if anything goes wrong, you can place all of the blame on someone else. It’s never gonna be Trump‘s fault. Nothing it’s ever going to be his own fault. Even though he’s the person that appointed all those people, all he has to do is say they let him down. And then he’ll just replace them with others that will do his bidding. It’s all about the loyalty. He’s never gonna put anybody in positions of power that he doesn’t think won’t do exactly what he wants them to do but at the very same time take 100% of the accountability on themselves. That’s how narcissists and sociopaths work. They’ll never take accountability, but they’ll always be there to take credit when things go right. And in between all the spaces will be filled with lies and deception. You can read all about these personality disorders by looking up information about Cluster B personality disorders in the DSM 5.

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Meg M's avatar

Yep.

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Jessica's avatar

Un-fucking-believable. The Trump regime strikes again. And the sycophants all pile on to "agree" with this abomination from the FBI and Justice Department. And Pam Bondi? She is rotten and corrupt. At attorney who does not care about due process, Court Orders, or arresting judges. We will remember. I will remember. There is no forgiveness for evil people.

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Claiming Equality's avatar

I believe and know every woman I know and talk to--is not putting up with this--we are taking to the streets!

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Bonnie Schubert's avatar

The time is now!

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Ellen Carr's avatar

I am in Milwaukee. We are protesting now and tomorrow at 3pm at

the FBI Field Offices 3600 S Lake Drive Resist!

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Catherine Moira's avatar

✊🏻 🇦🇺 ❤️‍🔥

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Jessica's avatar

Yes!!!

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gerri caldarola's avatar

Everyone should watch on HULU: "We were the lucky ones"

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Jessica Summerfield's avatar

Tim, to your point about keeping his hands clean "leave it to my lawyers", his 100 day Time interview is littered with that.

Transcript: https://time.com/7280114/donald-trump-2025-interview-transcript/

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M. Layfield's avatar

Thanks for reporting. The Bulwark is my number one choice for the news on Substack!

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Diane Sloss's avatar

Trump can't walk away from this with clean hands. He's the intimidator-in-chief of judges. Each one that rules against him is threatened by him. If anything happens to a judge, he's the one to blame. The Justice Department wouldn't be doing this without his blessing.

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M. Layfield's avatar

Diane, I think Trump could care less about what his associates are doing. He’s all about mayhem, and everyone of them is unfit and reckless

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Katie Wagner's avatar

We are asked to gather today at 3:00 PM outside the US Courthouse at 517 E Wisconsin Avenue to protest her arrest.

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Richard Courtney's avatar

Good luck, wish I could be there.

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Nathan Gervais's avatar

well, this is an escalation isn't it?

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KC's avatar

What I understand is that the person they wanted to arrest/take away was in the judge´s courtroom and there was no arrest warrant. So they would not be arresting that person legally. So the judge shielded the person from being arrested because there was no arrest warrant. Which would be her duty.

But that´s just what I have picked up so far..... And I am no expert in US law, nor do I have first hand info on what actually happened.

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severn's avatar

not that i don't think this is bad but it fits perfectly in tv-trump's need to light himself on fire every 24 hrs or so to get the media eyeballs on that fire vs talkin about something else...

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Carol Gamm's avatar

You may well be right! But we will fight them any way we can.

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SETH HALPERN's avatar

Was the migrant appearing before her? Was there a prior judicial ruling on the particular migrant's case? How did this judge become aware of the migrant's existence? Is she informally enforcing a prior ruling or has she appointed herself as an ad hoc political "resister" even absent having either formal jurisdiction or at least a juridical predicate?

It sounds as if she may have violated the law or at least judicial ethics by obstructing the feds. Whether that justified deliberately making her tabloid fodder the way Rudy Giuliani used to operate is a different question.

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KC's avatar
Apr 25Edited

If it is true that there was no arrest warrant and she protected the person being (illegally) arrested (as I understand; in her courtroom), then she would not have violated the law. But I am not sure if this would be true in the US.

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David Wood's avatar

I’m certain judges can be arrested as only Trump is above the law. This seems like a bullshit arrest though.

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Phyllis Robinson's avatar

Some of these ice agents need to start disappearing and being arrested on state levels start putting pressure and fear in them!!!

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Jane's avatar

It’s fucking sneaky. The stuff that is pissing us all off, execpt for folks that already have a vein of criminal thinking running thru them, is what spoke of on the tip line. This entire administration is using Power and Control Dynamics of abuse.

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Frances's avatar

And where is the ICE GPS ankle monitors they are slapping on people waiting for their deportation dates .

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Phyllis Robinson's avatar

What is Supreme Court going to say about this, has she been released? What is the latest update on this development, these judges better get some bodyguards it has come to the point that Trump does what he wants when he wants to who he wants. Martial law and civil war getting closer day by day be prepared!

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JAMES ROY LEE's avatar

This seems like a pattern. Yesterday, FBI agents arrested Joel Cano and his wife, supposedly for tampering with evidence. He was a judge in Dona Ana County until the FBI raided his home in February, when they arrested 3 Venezuelan men who had been living in a studio on the judge's property. The feds say the Venezuelans were gang members, but they are probably lying.

All of us will soon have to choose: are we going to be Miep Gies, or are we going to be the person who turned her in?

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_b1eab450-70c5-489a-8dac-5b67e2a90994.html

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Karen Landry's avatar

Again, I repeat, where are the criminals with the weapons, ammo, bombs, drugs, etc? Trump needs to be arrested.

Shouldn't there be a law where ICE identifies themselves? Why the face masks, street clothes, unidentifiable transportation?

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Frances's avatar

And the did it in Wisconsin is that random ?

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Richard Courtney's avatar

Hard to say at this point. The incompatence is so outrageous it can be misinterpreted as strategy. But in this case, smells like blatant retaliation to me.

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Greg WF's avatar

I advised a friend from Europe to change his summer vacation plans. I wrote that if mass protests begin this summer, and Trump invokes martial law, fighting will likely break out (Not fist fights) and perhaps the military will break into two factions. Sounds insane right?

A year ago most peeps would have said there is no way Trump would be able to seize dictatorial powers in 100 days. Insane right?

I’ve got a clue for all the “It can’t happen here” blockheads. Wake up, destiny is calling. If you’re a youngster like me (54) get your ass in shape, so you can make a contribution to the effort.

Semper Vigilantes…….

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Diana Davis's avatar

No one talks enough about the undocumented vs those here legally on visas. Many immigrants come and stay forever legally not becoming citizens. Trump said he would rid the country of actual unlawful immigrants.

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Linda P.'s avatar

Thanks for getting right to this. I saw the bit about the arrest and came here for the context. Sam, your breakdown between national and local is very useful. I hope to see more development of this idea, especially about the local level, as the detail emerge around the country.

So damned disturbing.

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Jessica's avatar

The Trump regime is at it again. There are no words for the corruption and the lawlessness that we see every day. Disgusting. Despicable. Anti-American.

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Larry DeLuca: To Elle and Back's avatar

Susan Collins will be “very concerned.”

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Greg WF's avatar

Her staff will call for the smelling salts when she swoons!

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Susan Chervak Neessen's avatar

I think this is a case for the Supreme Court...

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Larry DeLuca: To Elle and Back's avatar

What will they do? Say pretty please to Pam Bondi for access to the marshals?

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Greg WF's avatar

The USMS management will definitely not stand up to Trump if he issues illegal orders.

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Douglas Peterson's avatar

“Somebody must have slandered Joseph K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.”

Franz Kafka

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Count Zero's avatar

The tyranny just jumped a magnitude by this action. SCOTUS better weigh in immediately or the court risk the courts becoming impotent rubber stamps, if they weren’t already.

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Joyce Honea's avatar

Here we go

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Greg WF's avatar

Indeed.

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Will G's avatar

Meanwhile the J6 people that were pardoned are Scott free....

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Michael's avatar

Some of whom were neo-Nazis! But those guys aren’t a threat to public safety.

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Carol Gamm's avatar

This is a disgrace. We cannot allow our country to become another Nazi Germany. And what about those migrant children who have to go to court without lawyers or any other help. Our government is barbaric and cruel.

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Jessica's avatar

Too late for the next two years (when Congress changes hands back to Dem control) but not too late to save our democracy. I still have hope.

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Deborah Barnum's avatar

Yes, truly insane. It probably went down like this:

ICE agents go into judge’s courtroom. They say they are here to arrest a migrant. Judge tells them to see the presiding. They leave and go talk to the head judge of the courthouse.

They leave and migrant’s case is dealt with - a new pre trial is set, and the guy leaves.

ICE agents get in trouble bc they lost the guy.

They go out and finally find him.

ICE agents are in trouble. They now blame the judge for sending them to see presiding! They leave, and courtroom judge can’t just hold the migrant if he’s given a new court date for another pretrial.

Agents screwed up. Probably went for coffee in the interim.

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Deborah Barnum's avatar

Screwing up, in that they didn’t get away with arresting a guy in a courthouse which presiding judge probably nixed. Courts want to encourage people to attend their court dates.

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Deborah Barnum's avatar

And I bet the migrant left by the regular door when the agents were having coffee, and they just made up that part that he left by the side door.

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Deborah Barnum's avatar

Just another bunch of bullshit brought to you by the orange menace.

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Laura Carravallah's avatar

Is it possible the ICE agents also "obstructed justice" by interfering with the judge's hearing?

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Bartholomew's avatar

That’s the first thing I thought. The court guards should have arrested them.

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Janet's avatar

Seems like it to me.

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Steve's avatar

Maybe it's time to focus on Donald's cronies directly. They don't have Supreme Court cover and have a lot to lose.

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Sheri's avatar

Another carefully crafted outrage and figurative step across the line of acceptability.

How did her bailiff stand by and not send out the bat signal to the rest of the sheriffs in the courthouse? I'd like to know how the events occurred.

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Greg WF's avatar

The sheriff’s deputies were all probably MAGA cultists. The police are not going to save us. They will fall in line like good little humans.

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Paul Topping's avatar

I hope we hear from George Conway on this. Sarah, please be sure to bring this up in your next "George explains" pod.

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Larry DeLuca: To Elle and Back's avatar

George and his ex worked hard to get Trump elected.

All I wanna hear from him is an apology.

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Paul Topping's avatar

I think he's covered that already and more than made up for past mistakes.

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Sheri's avatar

Emergency episode for this one!

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Deborah L. Hall's avatar

ICE arrested one in New Mexico last night.

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Lynn  Bentson's avatar

arrested whom ?

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Deborah L. Hall's avatar

Joel Cano and his wife were arrested for allowing 3 Venezuelan gang members to live in his house, and have access to firearms. NM Supreme Court had already ruled that he can no longer be a judge in New Mexico.

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Diane vandervoort's avatar

Sue Trump for an illegal arrest!! This cannot be allowed!! He is just a president and has no business doing this !! The FBI has to be sued and prosecuted because they have no authority for this !! The he judge must not be held!! Trumps old line “I will punish you if you don’t do hat I want” he has to be stopped! The Republican Congress has caved and NOW they must STOP him!!!!!

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Aron Wisneski's avatar

Prior episodes of the Bulwark discussed how authoritarians attack the judiciary as one of its steps in destroying democracy.

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Karen Landry's avatar

Where the "F" are all those criminals he is supposed to remove? He's going after the "green card" holders which is easy pickings. The CRIMINALS are ICE, Trump, Patel, Bondi, etc.

They have to prove intent, and they will never succeed. Local paper said Dugan left the bench to look up something or talk with another judge, and the guy ran out on his own.

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Carole's avatar

LOVE THIS!The CRIMINALS are ICE, Trump, Patel, Bondi, etc. 100%

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Jeff Clabault's avatar

The MAGA horde on SM has been screaming for days about the need to impeach/arrest/deport the judges who refuse to capitulate and kiss the Trump ring. Patel is feeding that beast.

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Phyllis Robinson's avatar

Seals, rangers veterans get ready to defend your country and your families, he is past the point of any human decency, any respect for law, country, constitution anything we honor and cherish in this country, we are governed by a madman 😡🥊💯🇺🇸💙

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Sue Dalling's avatar

What do you expect from Patel

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Greg WF's avatar

That crazy-eyed freak is capable of anything. Anything!

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Its_RosalindBarker's avatar

These fools have lost their minds!! What the hell???

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Randy Buist's avatar

What the actual hell?

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Janise Turso's avatar

We are in full panic mode now.

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KxK's avatar

We were already in a bad place but the AATs had a fig leaf of ambiguity to look away or dissemble about Trump’s fascism.

With this arrest, Trump had crossed the point of no return in an undeniable manner.

I fear for my country☹️

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James Woodruff's avatar

This is fucking insane!

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John Conway's avatar

You got to be shi—ing me!!!

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Michele Holden's avatar

Of course, it’s a female judge.

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Phil Morrical's avatar

Meaning? Justice is blind

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Richard Courtney's avatar

You know exactly what it means. Claiming this is justice demonstrates your blindness.

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Kevin Keiser's avatar

That’s such a naive response.

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Phil Morrical's avatar

No your post was elusive and not clear, so follow up

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Richard Courtney's avatar

If you have been blind to this "president's" misogyny, disrespect, proven abuse, and predilection for pussy grabbing, and then the lies about it all, I guess it's perfectly understandable why you would be clueless.

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Phil Morrical's avatar

Oh Richard, you make me

Laugh

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Greg WF's avatar

Everybody play nice. The MAGA forces are the enemy. Keep your eyes on the enemy. We can verbally tear ourselves apart again, once the existential threat is dealt with.

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Bartholomew's avatar

WAKE UP!

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0:38
We believe Judge Duggan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Ruiz. allowing the subject and illegal alien to evade arrest. Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he's been in custody since, but the judge's obstruction increased increased, created increased danger to the public.