audio version of the segment here > Guilty
Jay Weber Show transcript 12-19-25
Folks…it’s a guilty verdict for judge Hannah Dugan, and she’s now technically ‘a felon’. All because she let her Trump derangement syndrome get the best of her.
Wow. Judge Dugan was found guilty of a felony count of obstructing federal agents in a case that has been closely watched nationally and will– will- now influence how local officials across the country view the threats from tom Homan and Kristi Noem: you don’t have to cooperate with ice…but you cannot obstruct ice…and if you do, we will charge you criminally.
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated more than six hours before delivering a split verdict. They found the judge not guilty on a lesser misdemeanor charge of concealing a wanted person.
It struck me as odd that Hannah Dugan didn’t take the witness stand in her own defense. Every legal analyst I heard in the run-up to the trial expected her to. So, when she didn’t, and when her defense team decided to -as her entire defense- to quickly put only four witnesses on the stand before resting their case. That had me thinking they had decided to hope for a ‘procedural hail Mary’, rather than put their hopes in any effort to convince the jury she was innocent.
The fact is-the case against Dugan was too overwhelming. You had the video. And the audio of the whispers that included Dugan, seeming to admit she knew this would get her into trouble. etc.
The evidence included testimony from two of her fellow judges. Sitting, Credible judges, suggested delectations that day made them uncomfortable, and they knew she was acting improperly. Well…boom. Case closed…for anyone with common sense.
I’m going to guess. And I’m making it clear-this is a total guess:
I’m guessing that judge Dugan and her-very bright- legal team realized the evidence of her criminal activity here was simply too much to overcome, and so they played for two possible outcomes: a very liberal judge, Lynn Adelman, finding a way to toss this case out of court because he might personally want to make a statement about trump and ice-etc.
And to his credit, Lynn Adelman didn’t. But Dugan’s team tried to get the case tossed out ‘one last time’ before closing arguments and couldn’t.
And option two: hung jury. Maybe one or more of these Milwaukee area jurors…who were probably mostly democrats. Maybe one or ‘some’ of them would want to make a statement with this verdict and ‘defy Trump’ or see their duty to the community ‘in that way’.
But- they didn’t. To-their-credit- these jurors took the charges -and their duty to the community-seriously…and afterward…none of them had any particular interest in being a star or making a statement. The j/s quotes the jury foreperson and says all others declined to speak to the media. The foreman said: "I am not feeling too good." "I will say the jury followed Judge Adelman’s instructions faithfully,"
For his part, our interim US attorney, Brad Schimmel, said:
“We weren’t trying to make an example out of anyone. This was necessary to hold judge Dugan accountable because of the actions she took,” “And Dugans attorney, Steve Biskupic said-
“The case is a long way from over,” Biskupic said he would be filing a motion asking Adelman to set aside the conviction, especially based on the split verdict. But that probably won’t go anywhere, either.
Maybe there’s an appeal to a higher court once Adelman announces a punishment. I’d say that’s probable.What comes next?
Well-the ‘victory laps’ from the trump white house and DOJ, I assume, along with the renewed warning that: we will prosecute elected officials who interfere with ice operations. That threat has a lot more credibility behind it today- because of Dugan’s actions and ‘this’ verdict. Other elected leaders and judges around the country will take notice.
That was the promise. And Dugan was the test case. She’s guilty. Will suffer consequences. She probably won’t serve jail time, but maybe a little. And either way, her judicial career is now ‘in flux’. Can she continue to be a sitting judge? Will the ‘justice system’ demand she resigns or end her career for her? We don’t know yet.
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