Wisconsin
Judge accused of helping man evade ICE arrest loses a bid to drop charges
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade arrest by U.S. immigration agents lost an attempt Tuesday to throw out the Trump administration’s case against her.
The prosecution of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan has highlighted the push by President Donald Trump’ s administration to confront state and local authorities who resist his sweeping immigration crackdown.
Democrats have accused the administration of trying to make a national example of Dugan to chill judicial opposition to its deportation efforts.
She was arrested at the county courthouse in April and indicted on federal charges in May. She quickly filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and is therefore immune from prosecution.
However, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on Tuesday rejected that argument and upheld the July recommendation of a magistrate judge who also ruled that the case could proceed.
Adelman said the dispute boils down to Dugan arguing that there is a general rule of immunity for judges from prosecution, with some limited exceptions, while the government argues that the cited exceptions are simply examples of types of prosecutions that have been brought.
“A review of the relevant history reveals the government has the better of the argument,” Adelman wrote.
He said that “the particulars of this case may be unusual,” but “there is no firmly established judicial immunity barring criminal prosecution of judges for judicial acts. There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job.’”
Attorneys for Dugan said in a statement that they were disappointed with the judge’s decision, but “we look forward to the trial which will show Judge Dugan did nothing wrong and simply treated this case like any other in front of her courtroom.”
Steve Caballero, spokesman for prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s Milwaukee, had no comment on the ruling.
Adelman’s decision could be appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He scheduled a hearing in the case for Sept. 3.
Dugan has pleaded not guilty to helping a man in the country illegally try to evade authorities. No trial date has been set. She faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if convicted on both counts.
In a motion in May to dismiss the charges, Dugan argued that the federal government violated Wisconsin’s sovereignty by disrupting a state courtroom and prosecuting a state judge.
Dugan also argued that the prosecution under federal law violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers because it overrides the state of Wisconsin’s ability to administer its courts.
The judge rejected her arguments.
Dugan is charged with concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, and obstruction, which is a felony. Prosecutors say she escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back door on April 18 after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the courthouse seeking to arrest him for being in the country without permanent legal status.
Agents arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse after a brief foot chase.
Milwaukee police last week released body camera footage of Dugan saying she didn’t know Flores-Ruiz was in the country illegally. The comments were captured three days before her arrest after Dugan called police because of potentially threatening flyers she and family members had received.
The footage shows Dugan telling police that media reports had been swirling about how she supposedly “hid” Flores-Ruiz in her courtroom. She goes on to say she didn’t know the person in her courtroom that day was in the country illegally, and she denied giving him special treatment.
“It’s all lies,” Dugan told officers. She later said, “I didn’t do anything that they’re saying.”
Dugan’s case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a courthouse back door to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. That case was eventually dismissed.
Washington
Prosecutors fail to indict sandwich thrower in Trump’s Washington public safety operation
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors have failed to obtain a felony indictment against a man who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official in the nation’s capital, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on an assault charge after he threw a sub-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent. A video of the incident went viral, and shortly after he was fired from the Justice Department, where he worked as an international affairs specialist in the department’s criminal division.
The case is one of the examples of the legal pushback to President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington that has led to more than 1,000 arrests. It is highly unusual for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment, and it was once said that prosecutors could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”
Grand jurors decide in secret proceedings whether there is another evidence for an indictment, and prosecutors could go back to try again in Dunn’s case. The person briefed on the failure to obtain an indictment against Dunn on Tuesday was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was sent Wednesday to a spokesperson for the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case. The New York Times first reported the development.
Dunn’s arrest came in one of the first days of Trump’s Aug. 11 order for federal agents and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say Dunn approached a group of CBP agents, pointed a finger in an agent’s face and swore at him, calling him a “fascist,” a police affidavit says. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at the agent’s chest, the affidavit says.
“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.
Dunn tried to run away but was apprehended, police said.
New York
Prosecutors seek seven-year prison term for wife of ex-Sen. Menendez
NEW YORK (AP) — The wife of former Sen. Bob Menendez should serve at least seven years in prison for playing a pivotal role in a bribery scheme that put the New Jersey Democrat behind bars for 11 years, prosecutors told a judge Tuesday.
Nadine Menendez, age 58, was convicted in April, a year after her husband and two New Jersey business owners were convicted in a bribery scheme that left the Menendez couple with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash, gold bars and a luxury car. A third business owner pleaded guilty in the case and testified against the others.
In presentence arguments, prosecutors cited “damning evidence” that showed Nadine Menendez began scheming how to profit off her relationship with the senator within a day of meeting him seven years ago.
“The defendant’s extensive, deliberate, and exceedingly serious criminal conduct calls out for a substantial sentence,” they wrote. “She corruptly agreed and promised that her boyfriend and then husband, a United States Senator, would use his power and his office to secretly act on behalf of the people who were lining their pockets.”
They said she also “corruptly agreed and promised to influence national security and foreign relations,” promising the senator’s approval of billions of dollars in military aid to Egypt.
She also promised that the senator would help to disrupt multiple state and federal criminal investigations to benefit the business owners, prosecutors noted.
“In short, the defendant put the power of Menendez’s office up for sale in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, paychecks for a fake job, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible,” they wrote.
Lawyers for Nadine Menendez argued in their submission last week that their client “is not her husband, or her co-defendants.”
“Despite all of the Government’s efforts to present her as a vixen, the reality is far from that,” they said. “Her entire life has been marked by men who have taken advantage of her, and harmed her, in myriad ways. An extended sentence is not warranted, needed, or appropriate under these circumstances.”
Texas
Election map for 2026 is racially biased, voting-rights advocates say in lawsuit
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Voting-rights advocates sued Tuesday to overturn a redistricting map drawn by Texas Republicans meant to favor the party in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it weakens the electoral influence of Black voters.
The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit in Texas.
They accuse Texas legislative leaders of engaging in gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice.
“The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Since the Voting Rights Act was adopted, the state of Texas has been found to have discriminated against Black and/or Brown citizens after every cycle of redistricting, according to the NAACP.
Black residents for decades have overwhelmingly favored Democratic candidates.
Texas lawmakers approved the map Saturday, adding five new districts favoring Republicans. The move came after President Donald Trump requested it.
The effort by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts across the country.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in response has approved a special election for a redrawn map to help Democrats win more seats.
Republican Sen. Phil King, the Texas measure’s sponsor, previously denied accusations alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race.
“I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas,” he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the Constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering to increase a party’s clout, only gerrymandering that’s explicitly done by race.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not yet signed the map into law, has predicted it will survive any court challenges. Abbott also has predicted other Republican-led states will make similar moves seeking new seats for the GOP in Congress.
The NAACP also on Tuesday urged all other states to act immediately by redistricting and passing what it called new, lawful and constitutional electoral maps.
“It may still seem far away, but the 2026 midterm elections will determine whether our democracy still holds on or whether the people surrender their power to a king,” Johnson said earlier this month.
Judge accused of helping man evade ICE arrest loses a bid to drop charges
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man evade arrest by U.S. immigration agents lost an attempt Tuesday to throw out the Trump administration’s case against her.
The prosecution of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan has highlighted the push by President Donald Trump’ s administration to confront state and local authorities who resist his sweeping immigration crackdown.
Democrats have accused the administration of trying to make a national example of Dugan to chill judicial opposition to its deportation efforts.
She was arrested at the county courthouse in April and indicted on federal charges in May. She quickly filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and is therefore immune from prosecution.
However, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on Tuesday rejected that argument and upheld the July recommendation of a magistrate judge who also ruled that the case could proceed.
Adelman said the dispute boils down to Dugan arguing that there is a general rule of immunity for judges from prosecution, with some limited exceptions, while the government argues that the cited exceptions are simply examples of types of prosecutions that have been brought.
“A review of the relevant history reveals the government has the better of the argument,” Adelman wrote.
He said that “the particulars of this case may be unusual,” but “there is no firmly established judicial immunity barring criminal prosecution of judges for judicial acts. There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job.’”
Attorneys for Dugan said in a statement that they were disappointed with the judge’s decision, but “we look forward to the trial which will show Judge Dugan did nothing wrong and simply treated this case like any other in front of her courtroom.”
Steve Caballero, spokesman for prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s Milwaukee, had no comment on the ruling.
Adelman’s decision could be appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He scheduled a hearing in the case for Sept. 3.
Dugan has pleaded not guilty to helping a man in the country illegally try to evade authorities. No trial date has been set. She faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if convicted on both counts.
In a motion in May to dismiss the charges, Dugan argued that the federal government violated Wisconsin’s sovereignty by disrupting a state courtroom and prosecuting a state judge.
Dugan also argued that the prosecution under federal law violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers because it overrides the state of Wisconsin’s ability to administer its courts.
The judge rejected her arguments.
Dugan is charged with concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, and obstruction, which is a felony. Prosecutors say she escorted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a back door on April 18 after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the courthouse seeking to arrest him for being in the country without permanent legal status.
Agents arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse after a brief foot chase.
Milwaukee police last week released body camera footage of Dugan saying she didn’t know Flores-Ruiz was in the country illegally. The comments were captured three days before her arrest after Dugan called police because of potentially threatening flyers she and family members had received.
The footage shows Dugan telling police that media reports had been swirling about how she supposedly “hid” Flores-Ruiz in her courtroom. She goes on to say she didn’t know the person in her courtroom that day was in the country illegally, and she denied giving him special treatment.
“It’s all lies,” Dugan told officers. She later said, “I didn’t do anything that they’re saying.”
Dugan’s case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a courthouse back door to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent. That case was eventually dismissed.
Washington
Prosecutors fail to indict sandwich thrower in Trump’s Washington public safety operation
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors have failed to obtain a felony indictment against a man who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official in the nation’s capital, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on an assault charge after he threw a sub-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent. A video of the incident went viral, and shortly after he was fired from the Justice Department, where he worked as an international affairs specialist in the department’s criminal division.
The case is one of the examples of the legal pushback to President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington that has led to more than 1,000 arrests. It is highly unusual for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment, and it was once said that prosecutors could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”
Grand jurors decide in secret proceedings whether there is another evidence for an indictment, and prosecutors could go back to try again in Dunn’s case. The person briefed on the failure to obtain an indictment against Dunn on Tuesday was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was sent Wednesday to a spokesperson for the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting the case. The New York Times first reported the development.
Dunn’s arrest came in one of the first days of Trump’s Aug. 11 order for federal agents and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say Dunn approached a group of CBP agents, pointed a finger in an agent’s face and swore at him, calling him a “fascist,” a police affidavit says. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at the agent’s chest, the affidavit says.
“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.
Dunn tried to run away but was apprehended, police said.
New York
Prosecutors seek seven-year prison term for wife of ex-Sen. Menendez
NEW YORK (AP) — The wife of former Sen. Bob Menendez should serve at least seven years in prison for playing a pivotal role in a bribery scheme that put the New Jersey Democrat behind bars for 11 years, prosecutors told a judge Tuesday.
Nadine Menendez, age 58, was convicted in April, a year after her husband and two New Jersey business owners were convicted in a bribery scheme that left the Menendez couple with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash, gold bars and a luxury car. A third business owner pleaded guilty in the case and testified against the others.
In presentence arguments, prosecutors cited “damning evidence” that showed Nadine Menendez began scheming how to profit off her relationship with the senator within a day of meeting him seven years ago.
“The defendant’s extensive, deliberate, and exceedingly serious criminal conduct calls out for a substantial sentence,” they wrote. “She corruptly agreed and promised that her boyfriend and then husband, a United States Senator, would use his power and his office to secretly act on behalf of the people who were lining their pockets.”
They said she also “corruptly agreed and promised to influence national security and foreign relations,” promising the senator’s approval of billions of dollars in military aid to Egypt.
She also promised that the senator would help to disrupt multiple state and federal criminal investigations to benefit the business owners, prosecutors noted.
“In short, the defendant put the power of Menendez’s office up for sale in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, paychecks for a fake job, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible,” they wrote.
Lawyers for Nadine Menendez argued in their submission last week that their client “is not her husband, or her co-defendants.”
“Despite all of the Government’s efforts to present her as a vixen, the reality is far from that,” they said. “Her entire life has been marked by men who have taken advantage of her, and harmed her, in myriad ways. An extended sentence is not warranted, needed, or appropriate under these circumstances.”
Texas
Election map for 2026 is racially biased, voting-rights advocates say in lawsuit
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Voting-rights advocates sued Tuesday to overturn a redistricting map drawn by Texas Republicans meant to favor the party in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it weakens the electoral influence of Black voters.
The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit in Texas.
They accuse Texas legislative leaders of engaging in gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice.
“The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Since the Voting Rights Act was adopted, the state of Texas has been found to have discriminated against Black and/or Brown citizens after every cycle of redistricting, according to the NAACP.
Black residents for decades have overwhelmingly favored Democratic candidates.
Texas lawmakers approved the map Saturday, adding five new districts favoring Republicans. The move came after President Donald Trump requested it.
The effort by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts across the country.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in response has approved a special election for a redrawn map to help Democrats win more seats.
Republican Sen. Phil King, the Texas measure’s sponsor, previously denied accusations alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race.
“I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas,” he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the Constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering to increase a party’s clout, only gerrymandering that’s explicitly done by race.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not yet signed the map into law, has predicted it will survive any court challenges. Abbott also has predicted other Republican-led states will make similar moves seeking new seats for the GOP in Congress.
The NAACP also on Tuesday urged all other states to act immediately by redistricting and passing what it called new, lawful and constitutional electoral maps.
“It may still seem far away, but the 2026 midterm elections will determine whether our democracy still holds on or whether the people surrender their power to a king,” Johnson said earlier this month.
