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‘What Fascism Looks Like’: Bondi’s War on Judiciary Is ‘Red Line’ for Democrats

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House and Senate Democrats are drawing a red line after agents from President Donald Trump’s FBI arrested a sitting judge—whom Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested is “deranged” and implied believes she is “above the law.”

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is “accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest,” according to the Associated Press. “FBI Director Kash Patel said Dugan ‘increased danger to the public’ by letting Mexico native Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave her courtroom through a jury door April 18 to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit.”

Shaking her head, Attorney General Bondi, a frequent Fox News guest, hours after the arrest on Friday said (video below): “What’s happened to our judiciary is beyond me.”

Asked what motivates these “once upstanding people in their communities and their professions” to “put it all on the line for this,” Bondi responded, “They’re deranged.”

“I cannot believe—I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not,” she continued. “And we’re sending a very strong message today, if you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are , if you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you, and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

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“Crucially,” The New Republic noted, Judge Dugan “is not accused of supplying a member of Tren de Aragua with guns. She is charged with two federal counts of obstruction, one for concealing a person from discovery and arrest, and another for obstruction of federal government proceedings.”

“Bondi, who has been a fierce defender of the president’s immigration agenda—including its wrongful deportation of immigrants—has now taken up the mantle of antagonizing state and federal judges on behalf of the increasingly hostile executive branch,” TNR added.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, commenting on Bondi’s remarks, wrote simply: “AG Declares War on ‘Deranged’ Judiciary. #2025”

“The fact that she’s connecting this to the broader judiciary is the most striking thing here,” observed Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake, who called it “a significant escalation of the administration’s efforts.”

Democrats are calling it something else: fascism.

“This is not normal,” wrote U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). “The Administration’s arrest of a sitting judge in Wisconsin is a drastic move that threatens the rule of law. While we don’t have all the details, this is a grave step and undermines our system of checks and balances.”

“Pam Bondi is not the President’s personal lawyer and DOJ is not a cudgel to target whoever the President doesn’t like,” wrote U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). “This is a democracy and We The People will not let this President trample over our constitution. I’m not afraid of Donald Trump and you shouldn’t be either.”

“There are no kings in America,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared. “Trump and Bondi can’t just decide to arrest sitting judges at will and threaten judges into submission. This is a dangerous escalation, an attack on the separation of powers, and we will fight this with everything we have.”

“First, Trump ignored the Supreme Court,” said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “Now, his FBI arrested a judge. This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system. This rings serious alarm bells.”

“Understand what this is: If Kash Patel and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them,” wrote U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN). “This is stunning — we must stand up to this blatant power grab. Republicans: How is this not a red line for you?”

“They arrested a judge?! They can no longer claim to be a party of law and order,” wrote U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH). “This will have to be a red line for congressional Republicans. Unbelievable.”

“In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances and separations of power for damn good reasons,” U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, said in a statement. “The president’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separations of power. Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country, and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by. By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this president is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

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“This is what fascism looks like,” wrote U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). “Attorney General Bondi threatening judges she claims are not cooperating with Trump immigration policies and saying ‘we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.’”

U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) wrote: “Kash Patel has long bragged about using acts of intimidation as FBI Director to appease Donald Trump. This extreme use of federal law enforcement is another example of this intimidation being used to stoke fear in immigrant communities and create chaos in our legal system.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor, issued this statement:

“Americans are watching with outrage the stunning news that Trump’s FBI has arrested a sitting judge in Milwaukee for alleged obstruction of an immigration arrest. While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates. We must do whatever we can to defend the independent judiciary in America.

“As Judge Wilkinson, a conservative Reagan appointee to the Fourth Circuit reminded us last week, this Administration has shown brazen contempt for the judiciary. They are flouting court orders on a daily basis and trying to impeach judges who have entered injunctions against their lawlessness. This contempt for the judicial function is now being weaponized, with the Administration literally arresting a judge over alleged defiance.

“Every American should be deeply troubled by this massive escalation, and Judiciary Democrats are standing strong for judicial independence. This is an unmistakable descent further into authoritarian chaos.”

Watch the video of Attorney General Bondi below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

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‘Lying’ Samuel Alito Is a ‘Coward’: Elections Expert

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4 hours ago

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April 30, 2026

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Professor of Law Richard Hasen, an elections law expert, is denouncing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a “coward” who is either lying to himself or the American public, after authoring what has been called the “earthquake” decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which sharply erodes the Voting Rights Act.

Alito’s “disastrous” majority opinion in Callais “essentially gutted what remains of the Voting Rights Act,” but he “claims to have done no such thing. The question is why,” Hasen posits.

Hasen charges that Justice Alito was too “afraid” to share his actual opinion, and so he found ways to “get away with overturning Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act through technical minutiae rather than through a direct hit.”

Section 2, passed in 1965, is the provision of the Voting Rights Act that protects minority voters from discriminatory voting laws and maps.

Hasen argues that Alito’s opinions in both Callais and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee “necessarily imply” that “Congress cannot do anything to protect minority voting rights short of banning intentional discrimination despite the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, despite the 15th Amendment’s ban on race discrimination in voting, and despite the fact that both amendments explicitly give Congress the power to enforce the measures by ‘appropriate legislation.'”

READ MORE: Trump Attacks ‘Very Disloyal’ GOP Senator — Calls for Him to Lose Primary

He notes that Alito managed to render Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “essentially toothless,” while leaving the six-decade-old landmark law on the books.

“Since Brnovich,” he writes, “no plaintiffs have brought successful suits under Section 2 challenging a law alleged to suppress votes.”

Indeed, Alito’s opinions in both cases are “extreme overkill,” handing states “multiple pathways” to defeat a Section 2 claim.

Hasen explains that for Alito, “to discriminate against Louisiana Democrats is not to discriminate against Louisiana’s Black voters, despite the overwhelming overlap between the two groups.”

But for Hasen, the most “galling” issue is that Alito “goes out of his way to disclaim he is making radical change while putting multiple stakes through the heart of Section 2.”

He offers some possibilities of why Alito has acted in this way.

“Maybe Alito is worried that a ruling forthrightly saying what he is doing would sully the reputation of the court, which has already faced public criticism for killing off another key part of the Voting Rights Act in 2013’s Shelby County decision,” Hasen writes. “Perhaps he is worried that a frontal kill of Section 2 would energize Democrats, leading to greater losses for Republicans in the midterm elections and in future elections.”

Regardless, Hasen concludes, no one “is fooled by Justice Alito’s act of cowardice, unless it is Justice Alito himself. If that’s the case, he is more deluded than he seems to think the rest of us are.”

READ MORE: Trump Stalls J6 Lawsuits From Officers and Lawmakers With Immunity Push: Report

 

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Trump Attacks ‘Very Disloyal’ GOP Senator — Calls for Him to Lose Primary

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7 hours ago

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April 30, 2026

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In a double-barreled attack, President Donald Trump has targeted a two-term sitting Republican U.S. Senator, calling for him to be voted out during the GOP primary — which is tight and barely weeks away — while criticizing him for his vote on impeachment and his opposition to the president’s pick for Surgeon General.

Calling U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) “a very disloyal person” who won election thanks to his endorsement, the president blasted him for his Senate vote to convict him “on what has now proven to be a total Hoax and Scam.”

Accusing Cassidy of “intransigence and political games,” Trump charged that he has “stood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means, for the important position of U.S. Surgeon General.”

Just sixteen days before the GOP primary, Trump did not hold back.

“Hopefully all of the Great Republican People of Louisiana, which I won, BIG, three times, will be voting Bill Cassidy OUT OF OFFICE in the upcoming Republican Primary!”

READ MORE: Trump Stalls J6 Lawsuits From Officers and Lawmakers With Immunity Push: Report

According to The Hill, Senator Cassidy is currently polling behind two of his GOP primary challengers among likely Republican voters.

Cassidy got just 21 percent support, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow received 27 percent, and state treasurer John Fleming received 28 percent, according to an Emerson poll. Although Trump endorsed Congresswoman Letlow in January, she has yet to pull into the lead.

In 2021, Cassidy was one of just seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump for inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Of the seven, just three are currently serving: Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski.

Minutes after his attack, Trump announced his nomination of Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole B. Saphier to become Surgeon General, after calling Means “a strong MAHA Warrior” who “understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!”

READ MORE: Trump Running Out of Options in $83 Million Case After Court Rejects Rehearing Bid

 

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Trump Stalls J6 Lawsuits From Officers and Lawmakers With Immunity Push: Report

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9 hours ago

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April 30, 2026

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President Donald Trump is holding up lawsuits from police officers and Democratic lawmakers suing in federal court by pursuing immunity claims, Bloomberg News reports. The plaintiffs say he bears legal responsibility for inciting the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is appealing a March decision by a federal judge who rejected his bid to have the cases thrown out.

The president’s personal attorneys are also arguing that he should not be required to submit any information, documents, or evidence to the plaintiffs until his immunity appeal is resolved — a position that, if granted, could extend the litigation by years even if Trump loses.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta has repeatedly rejected Trump’s immunity claims. Because Judge Mehta ruled that Trump was not acting in his official capacity, the Justice Department was denied its request to become the defendant in place of Trump.

Last month, Politico reported, Judge Mehta ruled that Trump’s January 6 speech at the Ellipse was a political act and therefore not eligible for immunity. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled presidents have broad criminal immunity for official acts.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

Politico also reported that the appeals process will likely generate years of additional litigation, keeping the cases alive through the end of Trump’s presidency.

READ MORE: Trump Running Out of Options in $83 Million Case After Court Rejects Rehearing Bid

 

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