The Trump administration accidentally texted its War Plans to a journalist

[grumbler]

Look I think we all get what grumbler is getting at. Ultimately we will see what happens, but I don't think the judge did anything illegal. She didn't even help the dude escape, ICE picked him up.

We don't have all the facts, but on the face of it she certainly seemed to be assisting his attempt to evade arrest. It does not make a lot of sense; if they have a warrant, they'll still (and did) arrest him later

[The Minsky Moment]

We don't have all the facts, but on the face of it she certainly seemed to be assisting his attempt to evade arrest. It does not make a lot of sense; if they have a warrant, they'll still (and did) arrest him later

The second sentence is correct - it doesn't make a lot of sense.
That's because the there is no evidence the judge attempted to assist an evasion of arrest - based on the government's own affidavit.

A typical urban state courthouse is a busy place during courtroom hours. The courthouse usually has a nice spacious lobby area.  But the upper floor courtrooms - Dugan was on the 6th floor - are usually off of relatively narrow corridors.  According to the government affidavit, ICE sent a team of six agents to camp out in the corridor in front of Judge Dugan's chambers.  Six agents for one man known to be unarmed and not dangerous.

Judge Dugan runs a misdemeanor part, so during court session, her courtroom is likely to be filled with all sorts of people coming in and out - including not only defendants and their lawyers, but witnesses, translators, victims, and family members of all of the above.  All of them come through the public entrance to the courtroom which means that day they all pass by a phalanx of armed ICE agents.  That's a serious concern because - for example - witnesses in criminal cases are sometimes not entirely law abiding citizens themselves, and could easily be scared off by a large law enforcement presence camped out in front of a courtroom.  That explains Judge Dugan's annoyance.

There are two entrances to Judge Dugan's courtroom.  Both enter from the same place - the public corridor.  Both exit out into the same place - the courtroom.  One is the general public entrance; the other is for jurors and leads into the jury room antechamber, which in turn has an egress out into the courtroom.  The reason for two entrances is that so in a jury chamber, jurors will be separate from lawyers and parties as they enter the courtroom. 

According to the government's affidavit, Judge Dugan had Flores-Ruiz exit out the jury exit. There is an obvious reason for her to do that.  She was running an active courtroom and did not want ICE to conduct an arrest right in front of the public entrance where others were coming in and out.  Sending him the jury entrance would mean at least a few yards of separation of the arrest from the public entrance.

The government's claim that she intended to assist evasion by sending out the jury entrance is absurd.  The jury entrance leads out to exactly the same corridor, where the judge knew ICE was waiting.  And indeed, the government affidavit admits the ICE agents saw him going out the door.  It then says an ICE agent got on the elevator with Flores-Ruiz.

If the judge wanted to help Flores-Ruiz evade, she wouldn't have sent out the jury room.  She would have taken him into chambers in the back, because there is usually a private entrance for the judge that does not lead to the public corridor.  She didn't do that.

The only obstruction that happened that day was by a six-man team of ICE agents wasting federal taxpayer money by putting on a show and disrupting business in a state courthouse.  Separation of powers goes two ways.  The judiciary cannot intrude on proper executive functions.  But the executive should not be conducting show piece enforcement operations in state courthouses.

[grumbler]

Thanks for the details, MM. Where can the public see the affidavit? I'm really curious about the wording they used.

[The Minsky Moment]

Paragraph 25 of the government's affidavit affirmatively states that Judge Dugan's chambers had private access to a non-public corridor.  So if her intent was to help evasion of arrest, there is no question she could have easily done it by taking him out the back.  Instead she sent him out to the public corridor.

Insane to charge it.  Should be dismissed on its face.

[The Minsky Moment]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/d62bd73e-a370-40e4-8d37-3cb70f6fa035.pdf

[The Minsky Moment]

BTW working of knowledge of Spanish should probably be a basic requirement for a DEA agent posted to any American city . . .