CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig on Monday criticized liberals’ double standard of wanting judges to be immune from arrest after supporting President Donald Trump getting arrested.
Honig appeared on “The Michael Smerconish Program” to discuss the Friday arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, who faces allegations of helping to hide an illegal migrant charged with domestic violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. He told host Michael Smerconish that it is hypocritical for “liberals” to be outraged over her arrest after asserting that Trump was not “above the law.”
“This is where some of the hypocrisy, to me, comes out, Michael, because I’ve seen a lot of garment-rending from liberals, let’s just say it: ‘How dare he arrest a judge? It is an intrusion on the sacrosanct nature of our courts.’ I agree that you have to think harder about it and be more careful about it as a prosecutor,” Honig said. “But these are the same folks who were gravely intoning when Donald Trump got arrested: ‘No man is above the law.’”
“Well, no judge is above the law either,” he continued. “And I know plenty of judges who, if a non-judge had done this — had shown someone a back door to help them get away from arresting agents — would bring this house down on them.”
Dugan allegedly guided illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz through a “jury door” to help him evade arrest, according to the criminal complaint against her.
“So, look, I do think it’s a fair point to say that’s a precipitous line to cross if you’re a judge or if you’re a prosecutor charging the judge,” Honig added. “But I think the prosecutors, based on this complaint — we always have to say it’s a complaint, they have to prove it — but I think the charge here is warranted. I do think this judge committed a crime.”
“I’ve seen some really interesting gymnastic-style contortions to try to explain why it maybe isn’t a crime,” he said. “And I mean, that’ll be litigated at a trial, but look, when you look at this whole complaint, I don’t see any way to objectively look at this and say the judge did not have intent to block this arrest.”
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ICE agents came to Dugan’s courthouse on April 18 to apprehend Flores-Ruiz, who was slated for a hearing with the judge the same day, according to the complaint.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
