(Sacramento, CA) – Senator Thomas J. Umberg, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement today in response to Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Kash Patel’s announcement on X this morning that a Wisconsin Judge had been arrested: 

“It is a sad day for democracy and the rule of law. Public safety is also deeply undermined when our courthouses become inhospitable, unwelcoming, and dangerous for vulnerable witnesses and parties. 

The Trump administration has been threatening the independence of the judicial branch in an effort to consolidate power. The arrest of a state court judge is an escalation of his destruction of our fundamental structure of checks and balances and of our state rights and federalist system. As James Madison wrote in the Federalist papers: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” 

Patel claimed in his post that Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan had been arrested for obstruction of justice for allegedly assisting an immigrant in avoiding arrest after he appeared in her courtroom this week. This is a developing story.

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Senator Thomas Umberg is the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and represents the 34th Senate District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, Orange, Placentia, and Santa Ana in Orange County as well as South and East Whittier in Los Angeles County. Umberg is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and former federal prosecutor. He and his wife, Brigadier General Robin Umberg, USA (ret.), live in Orange County.