Ex-Judges See Intimidation in Trump DOJ Arrest of Judge

A group of over 150 former federal and state judges are speaking out against the Trump administration’s arrest of a Wisconsin judge, calling it an “attempt to intimidate the judiciary.”

In a letter released Monday, the coalition of judges criticize the April 25 arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. The state court judge is facing federal charges for allegedly helping a migrant appearing in her court escape federal immigration authorities.

“This latest action is yet another attempt to intimidate and threaten the judiciary after a series of rulings by judges appointed by presidents of both parties holding the Trump Administration accountable for its countless violations of the Constitution and laws of the United States,” reads the letter, which is addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Former Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig and former US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner led the letter, according to a press release.

“The arrest and prosecution of judges is where rule by law ends and authoritarianism begins,” Luttig, a prominent conservative, said in a statement. “The judiciary is the last obstacle to a president with designs on tyrannical rule.”

Gertner, who served on the federal court in Boston, said in a statement that the action against Dugan is “something we should never tolerate in the United States.”

The former judges said in the letter that the arrest of Dugan at her courthouse was unnecessary, as she would have complied with a summons to appear in court. They said that the Justice Department instead, at Bondi’s direction, “decided to create an embarrassing spectacle.”

“This cynical effort undermines the rule of law and destroys the trust the American people have in the nation’s judges to administer justice in the courtrooms and in the halls of justice across the land,” the letter reads.

The retired judges said that the effort to undermine the courts “will fail.”

“The nation’s judiciary does not operate at the President’s instruction or at his discretion. That is why the American people trust judges as guardians of the Constitution and the Rule of Law,” the letter reads.