Wisconsin
Former judge spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest of Mexican immigrant
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant through her jury room door as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sought to arrest him in a courthouse hallway.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined her $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment.
Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution
threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, had urged authorities to “lock her up.”
Two Marquette University law professors — a former state Supreme Court justice and a Jesuit priest — spoke on her behalf, describing Dugan as a defender of oppressed people who doesn’t deserve punishment.
Dugan addressed the court, saying she tried to do her best as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”
“I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.
Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling acknowledged that Dugan has experienced collateral consequences but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”
The judge said Dugan lost her job, now has a felony conviction and experienced threats that forced her to move and stop attending community events. He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.
Prosecutors had argued in a sentencing memo that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.
Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough,” and should not be sentenced to any jail time beyond the hours she spent in federal custody.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months behind bars, but the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, wasn’t bound by them. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence, but Frohling wrote that “this was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence.”
Attorney Jason Luczak said after the sentencing that they would still appeal Dugan’s felony obstruction conviction. Jurors acquitted her at trial of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.
On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.
Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz. Her attorneys said during her trial that she was following protocols that called for court employees to report any immigration agents to their supervisors.
After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.
Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.
New York
U.S. prosecutors credit gold trader in Iran sanctions case with key help ahead of sentencing
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are seeking leniency at next-week’s sentencing of a Turkish-Iranian businessman who admitted to helping Iranians and their government evade sanctions and who provided key testimony at a 2017 corruption trial that strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
The prosecutors said Monday in a sentencing memorandum to a New York federal judge that international gold trader Reza Zarrab provided substantial help to the U.S. when he revealed paying millions of dollars in bribes to government and banking officials in Turkey and provided key testimony at the December 2017 trial.
His testimony preceded the conviction of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla and a sentence of over two years in prison for the banker. After the trial, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the verdict “scandalous.”
In a presentence memorandum, prosecutors wrote that Zarrab’s October 2017 guilty plea to conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering charges and the cooperation that followed had been “truthful, complete and reliable” and significant, useful and timely. They also noted that he had suffered “danger or risk” as a result of his help.
During a week on the witness stand at the 2017 trial, Zarrab said he was attacked in prison by a knife-wielding fellow inmate who claimed he was told to kill him for cooperating with U.S. authorities.
In their memorandum Monday, prosecutors referenced the threat, which resulted in Zarrab being moved from prison and into FBI custody.
According to prosecutors, the inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn who threatened Zarrab told him that he would be killed because he was cooperating against “big people in Turkey.”
Prosecutors also said that the government of Turkey imposed broad freezes and seizures of Zarrab’s assets after he began cooperating.
The lengthy delay for Zarrab’s sentencing is not uncommon in a complex prosecution that carried the potential for multiple trials in which Zarrab’s testimony might be necessary.
Last month, Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan approved the dismissal of a criminal case the U.S. government had brought against Halkbank, a state-owned bank in Turkey. The U.S. government’s request to drop the charges came amid warm ties between Erdogan and President Donald Trump.
After meeting with Trump last year at the NATO summit in The Hague, Erdogan told reporters that the U.S. president is quick to return his calls, an anecdote that signaled their close ties.
“With my friend Trump, we are opening the door to a new era in Turkish-American relations,” said Erdogan, who has been president of Turkey for 13 years.
Former judge spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest of Mexican immigrant
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant through her jury room door as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sought to arrest him in a courthouse hallway.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined her $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment.
Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution
threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, had urged authorities to “lock her up.”
Two Marquette University law professors — a former state Supreme Court justice and a Jesuit priest — spoke on her behalf, describing Dugan as a defender of oppressed people who doesn’t deserve punishment.
Dugan addressed the court, saying she tried to do her best as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”
“I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.
Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling acknowledged that Dugan has experienced collateral consequences but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”
The judge said Dugan lost her job, now has a felony conviction and experienced threats that forced her to move and stop attending community events. He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.
Prosecutors had argued in a sentencing memo that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.
Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough,” and should not be sentenced to any jail time beyond the hours she spent in federal custody.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months behind bars, but the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, wasn’t bound by them. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence, but Frohling wrote that “this was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence.”
Attorney Jason Luczak said after the sentencing that they would still appeal Dugan’s felony obstruction conviction. Jurors acquitted her at trial of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.
On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.
Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz. Her attorneys said during her trial that she was following protocols that called for court employees to report any immigration agents to their supervisors.
After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.
Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.
New York
U.S. prosecutors credit gold trader in Iran sanctions case with key help ahead of sentencing
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are seeking leniency at next-week’s sentencing of a Turkish-Iranian businessman who admitted to helping Iranians and their government evade sanctions and who provided key testimony at a 2017 corruption trial that strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
The prosecutors said Monday in a sentencing memorandum to a New York federal judge that international gold trader Reza Zarrab provided substantial help to the U.S. when he revealed paying millions of dollars in bribes to government and banking officials in Turkey and provided key testimony at the December 2017 trial.
His testimony preceded the conviction of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla and a sentence of over two years in prison for the banker. After the trial, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the verdict “scandalous.”
In a presentence memorandum, prosecutors wrote that Zarrab’s October 2017 guilty plea to conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering charges and the cooperation that followed had been “truthful, complete and reliable” and significant, useful and timely. They also noted that he had suffered “danger or risk” as a result of his help.
During a week on the witness stand at the 2017 trial, Zarrab said he was attacked in prison by a knife-wielding fellow inmate who claimed he was told to kill him for cooperating with U.S. authorities.
In their memorandum Monday, prosecutors referenced the threat, which resulted in Zarrab being moved from prison and into FBI custody.
According to prosecutors, the inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn who threatened Zarrab told him that he would be killed because he was cooperating against “big people in Turkey.”
Prosecutors also said that the government of Turkey imposed broad freezes and seizures of Zarrab’s assets after he began cooperating.
The lengthy delay for Zarrab’s sentencing is not uncommon in a complex prosecution that carried the potential for multiple trials in which Zarrab’s testimony might be necessary.
Last month, Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan approved the dismissal of a criminal case the U.S. government had brought against Halkbank, a state-owned bank in Turkey. The U.S. government’s request to drop the charges came amid warm ties between Erdogan and President Donald Trump.
After meeting with Trump last year at the NATO summit in The Hague, Erdogan told reporters that the U.S. president is quick to return his calls, an anecdote that signaled their close ties.
“With my friend Trump, we are opening the door to a new era in Turkish-American relations,” said Erdogan, who has been president of Turkey for 13 years.
