Of all the quasi-defenses possible, this one did not even seem remotely possible. CNN hired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in 2019 after being fired for lying about leaks to the media, which resulted in a criminal referral from the Inspector General. CNBC noted at the time that McCabe was “one of President Donald Trump’s top enemies within his own administration.”
Nevertheless, McCabe contradicted the idea of a Trumpian war on judges Saturday on CNN. The arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan set the media on fire, including at CNN, with hyperbole over revenge scenarios and — as always — The Descending Dark Night Of Fascism. McCabe at least partially doused those flames, although he tossed in a rather ironic accusation of “performative cruelty”:
🚨McCABE: Judge Dugan case is solid legally, but the way she was arrested was “unprecedented” and “performative cruelty.”
“These things are unprecedented, typically upstanding members of the community who have no criminal history and aren’t accused of a violent act are allowed… pic.twitter.com/1U8EnE8jqs
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 26, 2025
We’ll get to the “unprecedented” nature of an arrest and arraignment in a moment. First, let’s cover the case itself, which McCabe admits has more than enough probable cause for the indictment and arrest:
BLACKWELL: Ok, so let’s stay in this space here, and let’s extract the politics. Let’s take the Trump of it and the mass deportation and all of that out of it. I know you say you have to get to intent, but how strong, based on the complaint, do you think the case is?
MCCABE: I think it’s fairly strong, Victor. As I said, there’s a number of witnesses here who perceived these events in real time. They’ve reported what they saw to the — to the agent who’s put that into the complaint. There’s a bunch of law enforcement officers who were there who listened to the things she said, who will testify about how she reacted negatively to the discovery that there was law enforcement outside of her courtroom. So there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence there. But it will come up — it will come down to a jury to determine whether or not they think the judge intentionally tried to conceal this person or get him away from law enforcement.
So it’s not a slam dunk, but it’s also not a, you know, it’s not an unreasonable complaint. There’s plenty of evidence in the complaint to get you beyond the probable cause phase, which is where we are right now.
It’s not all circumstantial. The indictment includes direct testimony on Dugan’s actions from an eyewitness:
Dugan is accused of escorting the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, and his lawyer out of the courtroom through the jury door on April 18 as a way to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.
The affidavit quotes the courtroom deputy as having heard Dugan say words to the effect of “Wait, come with me” before ushering them into a non-public area of the courthouse. The action was unusual, the affidavit says, because “only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defense attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door.”
Add in the fact that the defendant’s victims had made the time to attend and apparently participate in the hearing. Eduardo Flores-Ruiz faced three counts of domestic battery, and the family wanted the charges addressed. Dugan short-circuited justice in this case by allowing Flores-Ruiz to leave before the hearing, and arranging his departure while the family still sat waiting for the hearing to start. Dugan abused her authority to cancel the hearing to allow for his escape.
Jonathan Turley had more on Flores-Ruiz’ case and Dugan’s dereliction:
According to the criminal complaint, Flores-Ruiz allegedly attacked three individuals after an altercation with his roommate about playing loud music. Flores-Ruiz allegedly struck his roommate approximately 30 times with a closed fist and then attacked his girlfriend and a third person. Some of the injuries required hospital treatment.
The evasion of police at the courthouse required officers to chase down Ruiz, which could have resulted in a more serious confrontation on the street. …
I am perplexed by Democrats rushing to denounce the arrest of Dugan before we know whether these allegations are supported. If she escorted the suspect to a non-public door to facilitate his escape, that is conduct and would constitute a shocking abandonment of judicial ethics. She can certainly use her authority to address matters properly before her in the form of judicial orders, but actively assisting in an escape is well beyond the pale.
McCabe still objects to the “performative cruelty” of arresting someone for committing a crime:
Typically, upstanding members of the community who have no criminal history and aren’t accused of a violent act are allowed to self- surrender at the time of their arraignment. The fact that they did not offer that courtesy to her, and instead went out of their way to treat her harshly, I believe is an act of performative cruelty on behalf of the Department of Justice, which is not the way any Department of Justice should be acting. Then their conduct in going directly to the media and spiking the football over this arrest of a member of the judiciary, also a departure from policy, totally unnecessary. And I think inappropriate by an attorney general and an FBI director.
Given McCabe’s track record, he hardly seems like a good source for what’s “appropriate” behavior by FBI executives. Put that aside, though, and marvel at McCabe’s outrage over arrests for obstruction of law enforcement when committed by judges rather than, say, a pre-dawn raid of Mark Houck’s home over a sidewalk argument that even local police thought was a nothingburger. The FBI conducted similar raids on other pro-life activists rather than offer “self-surrender,” even though they were also not accused of violent acts.
And let’s not forget that Dugan helped a violent offender escape not just ICE but accountability for his crimes from her own courtroom. And Dugan did so while Flores-Ruiz’ victims waited for Dugan to facilitate justice for their own injuries.
That’s really just a sop to McCabe’s CNN patrons, though — a reverse-engineered rationalization for outrage. Dugan’s arrest was caused by Dugan herself, and the FBI’s arrest came from a legitimate indictment and was handled the way the FBI usually handles such warrants.
