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FBI Arrests Wisconsin Judge, Accuses her of Obstructing ICE; FBI Arrests Wisconsin Judge, Accuses her of Obstructing ICE; Judge Sentences Former Rep. Santos to 7 Years, 3 Months in Prison; Russia Launches More Attacks After Trump's "Vladimir, Stop" Post. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired April 25, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today in "Inside Politics", a stunning development. The FBI Director says, agents arrested a Wisconsin judge accusing her of aiding and abetting a migrant wanted by ICE to escape from her courthouse. Plus, bargaining with Ukraine's chips.

President Trump says Russia can keep Crimea as part of a peace deal and says he's the only one who can negotiate it. As worries intensified that the president could sell out America's allies in Kyiv. And DOGE takes the wheel. New CNN reporting reveals how Elon Musk's team is building a massive government database to drive its deportation machine.

Who's helping them? A secretive Silicon Valley company, founded by a longtime Musk ally. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and "Inside Politics". We begin with breaking news this morning. The FBI arrested a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge. Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant avoid being arrested.

A law enforcement official tells CNN that she's facing obstruction charges and charges related to concealing an individual from arrest. CNN's Katelyn Polantz and Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig are with me. Katelyn, first, walk us through exactly what we know about this situation.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, we are just getting these court records for this new case against this federal judge. What is she accused of obstructing a proceeding as well as concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest?

So, a U.S. marshal has confirmed, or a U.S. marshal spokesperson has confirmed to us this morning that the Judge Hannah Dugan, a local judge, Milwaukee County Court, she was arrested on courthouse grounds where she works at about 08:30 this morning, taken into custody, appearing before the federal court about these charges, helping an immigrant from Mexico try to escape federal immigration authorities. The story of how that happened, it all took place on April 18th, that man -- a man named Eduardo Flores Ruiz, he was in her court for a domestic violence charge according to the court records. And at the hearing the immigration authorities from the federal government were waiting to apprehend him for these immigration removal proceedings.

But Judge Dugan, according to the court record against her, became visibly angry, commented that the situation was absurd, left the bench entered chambers, and then escorted later Flores-Ruiz through a jury do door so that he would avoid his arrest by federal immigration authorities. That is according to the Justice Department in federal court.

Flores-Ruiz has also been apprehended. He appeared in court yesterday for trying for the reentry proceedings. So, there is a complaint against him. There's also a case against this judge, Dana put it all together, quite an aggressive move by the Trump Administration, by the Justice Department to enforce immigration proceedings, taking them out of the world of immigration and putting them squarely in the federal court system where prosecutors are now going after a federal judge.

We will have to see what happens at the hearings this morning for her, what she will plead and if she will remain in detention, Dana.

BASH: Yeah, it certainly is. And Ellie, can you just talk about this process, how this works? I mean, first of all, the fact that there was a court hearing is should be noted. That is good news, because part of the question that everybody has been asking is what about due process for a lot of these people who have been taken and deported.

But with regard to this particular situation what are some of the legal underpinnings of what the FBI might think that they have here or DOJ obviously?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Dana, the complaint itself is going to have all the details and that's going to tell us how strong this case is. The complaint has just been unsealed made public seconds ago. It's 13 pages, have not had a chance yet to look through it. But let me tell you what I will be looking for a few moments from now when I do look through it.

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What separates potentially criminal obstruction of justice or aiding and abetting, under federal law, and this would be a federal charge, is really two things. First of all, taking some affirmative steps. So, did this judge take some affirmative step? Doing nothing or refusing to help is not enough.

You have to show that this judge took some affirmative step. And then the second thing is with some intent to try to obstruct or get in the way of a lawful arrest. So those are the two things that are really going to tell the tale here. The details are going to be crucial. Again, it's not sufficient to charge a crime if this judge simply said, I'm not going to cooperate with you, ICE, or I'm not going to do anything to help you ICE. But if this judge took some step, for example, misleading ICE, giving them -- knowingly, giving them false information, giving information to the person who was wanted for arrest in order to help that person get away from ICE, then you could be over the technical line of what could be obstruction of justice.

BASH: OK. Thank you to you both. And as you continue to read through this complaint, please raise your hand and we'll get you back on to give us more information about what you're seeing. Thanks. And I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters to help explain all of this. CNN's David Chalian, Laura Barron-Lopez of PBS NewsHour and CNN's Phil Mattingly and Priscilla Alvarez.

Hello everybody. Priscilla, we obviously just heard from the legal point of view you cover immigration for us. Is there anything more that you can tell us from your perch?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, sources have told me that you can anticipate more aggressive moves, more escalation when it comes to this agenda and acting on what they warned about. If you recall, when Trump took office, his senior officials were out on the Airwave saying they will go after local officials who they believe are circumventing them, who are obstructing their moves to enforce immigration law.

And that is what we are seeing here. And they were making moves. And Dana, you and I have talked about this behind the scenes to make it all possible. In fact, only days after the president took office, they released guidance saying that ICE is allowed to go in or near courthouses to make arrests.

We have been learning about these attempts to make arrests. Now, again, as you heard there from Katelyn and from Elie, we're still trying to get more details as to what exactly happened here. Because even if you're allowed to make courthouse arrests, you still have to talk to the courthouse and try to coordinate that.

So, we're still waiting to learn more about that. But certainly, this is part of the plan. They want to prosecute these officials. They want to make it clear that no one is going to get in the way of their immigration enforcement agenda. And this is, you can put that in this category.

BASH: Yeah, I mean, we're still waiting for the details. There was some local reporting from Milwaukee outlets about the fact that this judge had some questions. She said, pause. She was going to go talk to the senior judge in the court. And then this guy took off and then they found him.

And again, these are questions that we are hopefully going to get answers to. But to Priscilla's bigger point, which is this is message sending. The FBI Director did not have to send out that tweet to alert the world to this. He then deleted it, which we can find out why. But he knew what he was doing in his messaging.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Of course. But in the neither did Kristi Noem or Dr. Phil need to show up on the streets of New York and Chicago respectively and make a show of this.

BASH: Right.

CHALIAN: So, part of this is theater, but it's not just messaging, it's also campaign promise fulfillment. I mean, go back and listen to Donald Trump talk about ending sanctuary cities and I -- so this is a piece of that broader agenda. The, the going to local officials and explaining that you must help us enforce our agenda on immigration.

That's a campaign promise. I mean, think back to the Eric Adams' case that has now since been dropped. And the deal struck there, this, they have made crystal clear the Trump Administration that this was going to be part of the pattern of behavior from them to get rid of this notion of localities trying to evade federal immigration enforcement.

BASH: And this is, I just want to make something clear to our viewers because it's a bit confusing. This is a local judge who happens to work in a federal courthouse.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And I mean, to everyone's point, essentially almost every month, if not every other week, Tom Homan the border czar has said we are looking into how we can prosecute and how we can go after not just judges who they think are hindering their agenda, but also political officials and any kind of leader --

BASH: U.S. attorneys.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah. U.S. attorneys, any kind of leader that they say is working in a sanctuary city who may be hindering their ability to deport people. So, he's made that clear as recently as even last week saying it over and over again, that he's talking to Pam Bondi, that he's talking to Kash Patel about this.

And so that's something that I think, yes, this appears to be the first one that they've done so far in this administration, but that we can see more and more of as it goes on.

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BASH: And on that note, let's listen to what Stephen Miller said earlier this week about the idea of the administration pushing back against judges on immigration.

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STEPHEN MILLER, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: You have federal judges telling President Trump that he can't deport these threats from our communities. This is the choice facing every American. Either we all side and get behind President Trump to remove these terrorists from our communities, or we let a rogue radical left judiciary shut down the machinery of our national security apparatus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Phil, in this particular case, it's not a federal judge. And also, this was not a hearing about deportation. This was a hearing about allegations of domestic violence with this individual.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think it's important, particularly with Stephen Miller, because I think he's a really critical example in this moment with today being kind of the great window into it, of the importance of both preparation and intent coming into this moment.

I think people may have lost the threat a little bit, looking at the tariffs and the economy, or looking at some of the DOGE effects over the course of the last a hundred days and forgotten that when it comes to immigration or when it comes to regulatory issues, there are large portions of this White House that have planned for years.

Priscilla makes an excellent point when I talk about preparation, laying the groundwork through guidance memos, through directives at the start, knowing that they were going to end up in this place, messaging it as Tom Homan did in every blue state and city that he went to over kind of a three or four week period making very clear work with us or get out of the way or there will be repercussions over and over and over again.

And the planning element, which appointed Stephen Miller because he and his team knew exactly what they wanted to do, how they wanted to do it, and the bureaucratic levers they needed to pull to ensure it was possible. That's part of the frustration with the judges and the court cases they've lost or had been paused on up to this point. Of course, the thing that everybody needs to remember, there's an appeals process and that's --

BASH: Yeah --

MATTINGLY: I was just going to say that --

CHALIAN: -- this will lots of these cases are all going to be in court and there's going to be an ultimate adjudication here, which I know is a bit ironic given that we are talking about the actions taking place in court, the shocking headline of it, a judge being arrested, right.

That is shocking and it is going to be the very basis of some of the arguments that are put forth in court as this goes through as a case. But it's also the shocking headline that the administration is seeking.

BASH: Yeah.

ALVAREZ: It's also --

BASH: -- that was my point about the Kash Patel tweet.

ALVAREZ: And lastly, we focus so much on the senior officials and what they're saying, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan. But I talked to my sources across the country in many different positions. And this is the message from the bottom up too. They are also being told report the people who get in the way. And that is how this all starts to snowball over time. BARRON-LOPEZ: No, I think that's all part of it, right? The shocking headline and the chilling effect are part of the strategy, which is maybe they don't go after that many judges or other officials in a row in a very rapid fashion, but they did go after one in a very public fashion that gets a massive headline and then that creates a chilling effect where other judges are less likely to rule, potentially rule against them.

Lawyers don't want to bring cases against the administration. It's all part of that la larger strategy of combating any type of opposition to the administration and the policies that they're pursuing.

BASH: All right, Everybody standby. Coming up. Donald Trump's top negotiator is in Moscow today. As CNN has new reporting on the president's frustrations. He's talking about behind the scenes with this peace process, those details when we come back.

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BASH: Now we've got more breaking news. Former Republican Congressman George Santos has been sentenced on federal fraud charges. CNN's Brynn Gingras is live outside the courthouse on Long Island in New York. Brynn, what was he sentenced to?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Dana. So, 87 months. Now, this is what prosecutors had asked the judge for on those two counts that George Santos, the Republican Congressman who remember, was kicked out of Congress after these charges were filed against him by the federal government. And now that is what the judge gave him.

She was quite angry, I have to say, in that courtroom when she basically said to him, where is your, you know, apology, why you're not sorry for the crimes that you've done in the last eight plus months she said, you've just continued to lie to the people that you once represented in the third Congressional District.

So, she handed down again for these two charges that he pled guilty to for committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She handed down an 87-month sentence. Now I will say he doesn't have to report or surrender to prison until July 25th. So, he has a few months before he has to report, his attorneys ask that he be brought to a prison in the Northeast.

They actually ask that he have protective custody. And the judge said, listen, I don't really see any reason for that as far as George Santos is concerned in that courtroom, Dana, he was sobbing, absolutely sobbing when the court -- when the judge handed down the sentence.

When he had a chance to speak to the judge, he did say a few words and he was crying during that time as well.

[12:20:00] He basically admitted that he betrayed the confidence of the people that entrusted him. He said that he cannot rewrite the past but he wants to, you know, steer the future in the right direction. But again, the judge here, just not buying it, not buying it at all, saying even pointing out the amount of money that he made from cameo appearances, as we have always heard about what George Santos.

Why didn't you set up a savings account to start paying that restitution back to start paying these people defrauded back. So really, really, you know, went after him with the sentencing. And we do expect to hear from the U.S. attorneys shortly -- you know, shortly soon. But certainly, it was an interesting time in court for that sentencing. It lasted about an hour and a half, almost two hours, Dana, before that sentencing was handed down.

BASH: Brynn. Wow, that sounds incredibly dramatic. What a scene that you witnessed there.

GINGRAS: Yeah.

BASH: Thanks for bringing it to us. And Elie Honig is still with us. Boy, Elie, I'm glad you're, you're here today. Seven years.

HONIG: Yeah.

BASH: It's exactly what the prosecutors wanted.

HONIG: This is the worst case, realistic scenario and outcome for George Santos. What's really unusual about this situation, Dana, is it's unusual to see this big a disparity between what the defendant was arguing for. Here George Santos could not possibly have been sentenced to less than 24 months, two years.

So, George Santos' lawyers were asking for two months, but the prosecution was asking for 7 plus years, 87 months. Usually the parties are much closer, especially in a case like this that was resolved by guilty plea and not by trial. And here we see the judge went all the way to the very top of that range, gave the government every month the government asked for.

And based on Brynn's reporting, and based on my own experience in federal courts, a big reason for that is when a defendant has refused to express any remorse, refused to accept responsibility, flouted the court and the public like this, that tends to inflame judges, that tends to drive up sentences.

But you are right, Dana. This is a very, very high sentence, especially for a first-time non-violent offender like George Santos is.

BASH: Yeah. Wow. Really, really remarkable. Thank you, Elie. And thank you again to Brynn. And when we come back, Donald Trump makes an offer. Ukraine just might refuse. New details on the president's plan. He hopes will end the war between Russia and Ukraine, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:25:00]

BASH: President Trump's Chief Negotiator, Steve Witkoff is in Moscow today. He's been in meetings as you see there with Vladimir Putin focusing on trying to jumpstart talks between Russia and Ukraine. These talks are happening after Russia launched another wave of deadly strikes overnight, despite President Trump's social media posts yesterday saying, Vladimir, stop. But the President said this morning, he still has high hopes for the talks.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: That's what my aim is, I want to say 5,000 young men. They happen to be mostly Ukrainian, Russian. 5,000 young Ukrainian and Russian men. And that's a big honor if I can do it. And I think we're pretty close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He's not quite that positive in private, according to new CNN reporting, which as quote President Trump -- President Donald Trump is frustrated. His efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have so far fallen short, and has privately told advisors that mediating a deal has been more difficult than he anticipated.

My smart reporters and colleagues are back here. And David, to anybody who has, you know, seen the world in which we live seeing the aggression with which Vladimir Putin did invade its neighbor. It should not come as a surprise that getting a peace deal is hard. But he's very confident in his skills.

CHALIAN: He the president.

BASH: He the president.

CHALIAN: Yes. And he, you know, yesterday in the Oval Office said he thought things were progressing in the right direction. He thinks a deal is possible. I think, you know, it's so complicated. Obviously, the issue itself is complicated, but it's complicated to observe President Trump on this, because we tend to immediately gravitate in observation of him when he speaks, perhaps not fondly of Putin or Russia, but certainly not in rebuke form of them in every way that, you know, his predecessors would.

And yet yesterday in the Oval Office, while he said, well, you know, they conceded they're not taking the whole country. And everyone was like, what? And but in the same session, he also said, and again, we don't know, there's not transparency. This, you have no idea how much pressure we're exerting to on Russia.

You don't know what we are. So, he seems to think he's got some ability. And Witkoff is added again to bring Russia to the table here. And that, that is their role while Europe is working on making sure that Ukraine stays in the fold with whatever Trump is able to bring back here. I think we are, I know the administration is eager to get a win here and, and fast and around the hundred days mark perhaps, and announce a deal. It seems to me that this is still, we've got some time here to go before we know that there's a road out of this