The attorney for a Wisconsin county judge accused of helping an immigrant evade federal authorities issued a dire plea to jurors hearing the “unprecedented trial,” urging them to act as a check on government “overreach” — and warning it goes “all the way to the top.”
Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, faces federal charges stemming from an April incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. She was indicted on two counts, including felony obstruction of proceedings before a U.S. agency and misdemeanor unlawful concealment of an individual subject to arrest. Authorities said she helped an undocumented immigrant evade agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by directing him and his attorney through a private courtroom exit while agents waited in the hallway.
On Thursday, her attorney, Jason Luczak, appeared to warn jurors that the decision to prosecute the judge can be traced to President Donald Trump.
“Make no mistake: This went all the way up to the top,” Luczak said, according to Adam Klasfeld of All Rise News. “This went all the way up the government.”
“Finding Dugan guilty following ‘an unprecedented trial’ would ‘green-light prosecutions’ of judges, sending a ‘chilling effect’ that will harm access to justice in the United States, Luczak said,” according to Klasfeld.
“They’re trying to make an example of Hannah Dugan,” Luczak said. “They’re trying to besmirch her reputation, her honest reputation.”
Prosecutors, however, warned jurors have a duty — just as the judge did.
“On this first day in this courtroom, you took an oath: Just like the defendant did,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Brown Watzka told jurors, arguing the judge broke her oath to uphold the law.
Closing arguments ended at 2 p.m. local time. Jurors began deliberations about a half-hour later.
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