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Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan today of protecting a criminal, an undocumented immigrant who appeared before her in court on April 18 in a domestic violence case.
In an interview on Fox News this afternoon, Bondi addressed Dugan’s arrest after she allegedly obstructed the effort to detain the immigrant.
“We are going to prosecute you, and we are prosecuting you. I found out about this the day it happened. We could not believe, actually, that a judge really did that,” Bondi said.
“We looked into the facts in great depth,” she said. “You cannot obstruct a criminal case and really, shame on her. It was a domestic violence case of all cases, and she’s protecting a criminal defendant over victims of crime.”
Bondi also spoke derisively about judges in general, saying that they’re “deranged” and think they are “above the law.”
“They are not,” she said. “And we’re sending a very strong message today — if you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are. If you are helping hide one … anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you, and we will prosecute you. We’ll find you.”
At a hearing in the Northern District of California, an attorney for the Justice Department confirmed that the Trump administration reversed the terminations of student visa registrations of foreign students in the U.S.
“ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for status record termination. Until such policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiffs in the Northern District of California cases and all other similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or shall be reactivated,” said Elizabeth D. Kurlan, an attorney for the Justice Department.
Kurlan said ICE will not modify records solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record terminations. She said that ICE still has the authority to terminate SEVIS records for other reasons, including if a student fails to maintain their nonimmigrant status after it is reactivated, or engages in unlawful activity that would render them removable from the U.S. under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan has been released on bond after a magistrate judge advised her of her rights, charges, penalties and fines this morning, according to the court docket.
The federal government is not seeking her detention. A preliminary hearing and her arraignment is set for May 15.
Dugan, a circuit court judge in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, was arrested by the FBI, accusing her of obstructing the detention of an undocumented immigrant who was wanted by federal authorities.
A federal judge in New York sentenced former Rep. George Santos to more than seven years in prison today.
Prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert to throw the book at Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman, to “reflect the seriousness of Santos’s unparalleled crimes.”
“From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum, in which they asked Seybert to sentence him to 87 months in prison.
That’s the sentence the judge handed down.
Prosecutors said that despite his pleading guilty to a pair of felony fraud charges in August — and a teary expression of remorse to news cameras after the proceeding — Santos is “a pathological liar” who isn’t actually remorseful about his actions.
Read the full story here.
In the wake of reports yesterday that Trump was planning to sign an executive action directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, donations on the platform spiked.
Trump signed a presidential memorandum accusing ActBlue of the “unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees” yesterday evening, but donations started shooting up well before that, as Politico reported yesterday morning that Trump’s action against the platform was forthcoming.
The Democratic National Committee, former Vice President Kamala Harris and numerous other Democrats sent fundraising emails about the situation throughout the day.
The beginning of the fundraising jump began in the late morning yesterday and peaked during the 7 p.m. hour, with almost $500,000 donated on the platform that hour, according to an NBC News analysis.
The previous peak for the week was Tuesday at 3 p.m., with more than $330,000 donated in that hour.
The FBI arrested a county judge in Milwaukee today, alleging that she obstructed the detention of an undocumented immigrant who was wanted by federal authorities, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News.
The arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan marks a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, in line with its rhetoric about going after local and state authorities on immigration-related matters.
Dugan was arrested by the FBI and is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, the senior law enforcement official said. The official told NBC News that Dugan was arrested at about 8:30 a.m. local time in the parking lot of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, before she entered the building. She was then transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals.
Read the full story here.
HONG KONG — Trump has a new nickname in China: “The Lord of Eternal Tariffs.”
Jokes and memes about the tariffs Trump has imposed on Beijing and other U.S. trading partners have been proliferating online in China, embraced by state media seeking to rally the public, as well as ordinary internet users bemused by Trump’s policy decisions.
Read the full story.
Trump, while departing the White House on his way to Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral, told reporters, “I think we’re pretty close” to a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The president said that U.S. representatives, including Steve Witkoff, were “meeting with Putin right now as we speak and we have a lot of things going on, and I think in the end, we’re going to end up with a lot of good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals.”
Asked whether he has a deadline in mind to reach a deal, the president said, “No deadline, I just want to do it as fast as possible.”
The president also answered questions about whether he’s spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I’ve spoken to him numerous times,” Trump said, but declined to comment on whether he’s spoken to Xi since the tariff war began.
Former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden will attend Pope Francis’ funeral this weekend.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump are among the heads of state also attending the funeral.
The United States and Iran are preparing for a new round of high-stakes nuclear talks, with Iran showing more flexibility and openness about a deal than it has in years. “If Americans are concerned about us having nuclear weapons, we are ready to accept reasonable verification in return for lifting all sanctions,” a member of Iran’s national security committee said. NBC’s Richard Engel reports for “TODAY.”
Reporting from Hong Kong
The U.S. may move to reduce tariffs on China to stimulate talks, according to the U.S. envoy to China during Trump’s first administration, Terry Branstad.
“There’ll be some movement that’ll reduce the burden and an indication that we want to deal,” Branstad said during a forum hosted by the New York-based asset management firm KraneShares on Wednesday.
But Beijing will need to reciprocate in a way “that shows that they have an interest in it,” he added. Branstad pointed to “tremendous resurgence in comeback” of the markets, which had tanked following Trump’s announcement.
“That’s because of the signal that Trump has made that these initial tariffs on China are not the end of the day, and they’re to get their attention and eventually to try to get a better deal,” he added. “I don’t know that there will be a deal, but I know that Trump like to see one at the end of the day.”
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, a day after Trump told Putin in a Truth Social post to “STOP” launching strikes on Ukraine.
Witkoff is a key player in the negotiations among Ukraine and Western allies to end the war.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said yesterday that Witkoff is set to participate in the next round of talks in Oman tomorrow.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump will take off for Rome this morning and will attend Pope Francis’ funeral tomorrow. The body of the pope is lying in state for a third and final day today.
Retailers are warning that U.S. consumers could once again be faced with empty store shelves and the kind of supply chain snarls that marked the Covid era if President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China remain at their current levels.
Companies have been canceling their shipments of goods from China and halting new orders after Trump put a 145% tariff on nearly all Chinese imports this month. As a result, the number of freight vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles is on track to be down 33% year-over-year for the week ending May 10, according to ship tracking data from Port Optimizer.
Typically, U.S. retailers would be ramping up their orders for two critical periods later this year: the fall back-to-school shopping season and the winter holidays. And the pullback is creating uncertainty about whether U.S. shoppers will have the selection of goods they’ve grown accustomed to in the coming months.
Read the full story here.
Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to endorse his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, for U.S. Senate, just two days after longtime Sen. Dick Durbin said he would not seek a sixth term in office.
Pritzker plans to make the announcement — news of which was shared in advance with NBC News — at an event in the city’s Southside neighborhood of Bronzeville where Stratton grew up.
The backing — which is sure to include financial resources from the billionaire politician — instantly lifts Stratton’s profile in a race that’s expected to draw a crowded field given that Durbin has held the seat for nearly 30 years. That group could potentially include at least two Democratic members of Congress in the state.
Read the full story here.
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