The FBI arrests a US county judge, accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant

We begin with breaking news from the United States. The FBI has arrested a judge in Wisconsin for allegedly helping an immigrant evade arrest from federal authorities. This appears to be a major escalation in the standoff between President Trump and the courts over deportations and a policy crackdown on illegal immigration. FBI Director Kash Patel made the announcement on X, which he then later deleted. He said that the FBI believes Judge Hannah Dugan intentionally led agents away from a man that they were trying to take into custody at her courthouse last week. All right, we want to go straight now to our Washington correspondent, Benjamin Alvarez-Gruber. He's following this story for us. Benjamin, all right, talk us through this. What exactly is this judge being accused of? So now the latest is that both Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI Chief Kash Patel confirmed the arrest. You just mentioned the post that the FBI chief sent out, but briefly afterwards deleted. So it was posted again. Pam Bondi said no one is above the law and referring to this arrest that happened earlier today with federal agents that detained a Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan at a couple of hours ago, she appeared briefly in a federal court, has since been released. So that's the latest information that we have. Also by words by her attorney that says that she protests her arrest. This judge in Milwaukee, that's in the state of Wisconsin, is being investigated on whether she tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week. She is accused of escorting a man, undocumented man from Mexico, Eduardo Flores Ruiz and his attorney through the jury door on April 18 as a kind of way to help avoid a possible arrest. We're still waiting on information on one, the arrest warrant, the criminal complaint that are not yet publicly available, but many newsrooms are still asking for more information from the FBI and also from other local officials to get more information about this case and what the next steps will be. Benjamin, we know that the Trump administration has repeatedly criticized judges, particularly in cases that deal with illegal immigration. How much of an escalation is this between the White House and the judiciary? It is a massive escalation. This is the first case, publicly known instance of the Trump administration accusing a local official for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement. But the attacks by the Trump administration against judges of every level up to the Supreme Court are not new. And to give a little bit of context, this arrest is happening after in January, so already a couple of months ago, a high-ranking official in the Department of Justice issued a memo calling on prosecutors to pursue criminal cases, criminal charges against local government officials to obstruct the government's immigration enforcement efforts. And we've heard that over and over from the White House, completely ignoring the three branches of government and also that it's not up to the executive to decide who's a criminal or not, but it's up to the judges and to the courts to make the decision. And Benjamin, how unprecedented is this, the FBI arresting a judge? It is unprecedented, but we're in a context of unprecedented situations. The conversations over a constitutional crisis that many already see in this country started growing even more after the case of this father in Maryland that was supported to El Salvador, where even the White House admitted in court that it was a mistaken deportation with this agreement with El Salvador, where the Supreme Court weighed in and said that the Trump administration needs to facilitate that return. But nothing has happened there yet, with many seeing already a constitutional crisis with the executive, with the Trump administration ignoring this Supreme Court order. So it's not a surprise that the attacks on judges and also telling federal prosecutors to file a criminal complaint is leading to this case. As I said, the first publicly known case that will definitely lead to a lot of reactions here from Washington and also asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation for more evidence, accusing it to say if actually this person was helping this man to avoid an arrest. That's right. There's the accusation and people would like to see the evidence. Benjamin Alvarez Gruber in Washington tonight. Benjamin, thank you.