John Gerardi Guest Hosts - Rogue Judges Arrested

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to dig into Steve Hilton announcing he's running

(00:02):
for governor of California. We're going to dig into a
bunch of stuff here today on the Trevor Carey Show.
I am not Trevor Carey, John Girardi filling in for
Trevor today. My thanks once again. It's been fun filling
in Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, this week. Been fun hanging out
with Agent Squires and Ryan and all the guys here
at Power Talk. And big thanks Trevor Fow for letting

(00:25):
me step into the big boy seat. We got Fresno
State Bulldog baseball coming up this evening at five point thirty.
Clovis Rodeo is going on all kinds of fun stuff.
All right, let's get into this story that just broke
today about these judges being arrested. So there's this judge

(00:46):
in Wisconsin and another judge in New Mexico that federal
authorities have charged with counts of obstruction of justice for
their roles in hindering federal law enforcement from getting rid

(01:07):
of some illegal aliens. So I'm gonna talk about the
Wisconsin judge, this judge in Wisconsin, Judge Duggan. I think
her name is Melissa Duggan. I'm not no, it's not Melissa.
Her first name begins with a see. I can't remember
her name anyway. Or no, Hannah Duggan, Hannah Duggan, there

(01:27):
we go. Hannah Duggan. So, Hannah Duggan is a judge
in Wisconsin. She had Ice waiting inside her courthouse to
arrest an illegal alien whose criminal trial she was overseeing,
and she basically snuck the guy out of the courthouse,

(01:49):
delayed the hearing because Ice was waiting to arrest him.
So I want to go step by step through this
case because and again, look, we've only heard the prosecution
side of it. Everyone's innocent until proven guilty. But there's
two things to understand that. But there's one big thing

(02:10):
to understand. The big blaring headline coming from Democrats is
this is outrageous. This is President Trump attacking the courts,
the foundation of our democracy. He is attacking the courts
for not supporting his immigration work. Okay, first of all,
he is not attacking the federal judges who have blocked

(02:32):
his immigration efforts. That's not what's happening. It's not like
Judge Boseburg, the DC District court judge who's been blocking
all kinds of stuff from Trump, he hasn't arrested him. Okay,
this is not retaliation against judges who have issued federal
judges who have issued various kinds of restraining orders against
executive actions. Okay, these are state court judges. And while yes,

(03:01):
I think it's fair for your antenna to go up
when the Department of Justice is prosecuting public officials, when
the Department of Justice prosecutes a judge, when the Department
of Justice prosecutes, say, a former president, the assessment you

(03:24):
should give to it is, well, is this just political
persecution or did this person actually commit a crime. The
fact that someone's a judge doesn't mean they're above committing
a crime. It's not like it's impossible for them to
commit a crime. They most certainly could commit a crime.

(03:47):
And yeah, while we got to make sure that we're
you know, doing things the right way and following appropriate
procedure and not making up phony, baloney criminal charges against
someone just because we don't like them, let's assess this
fairly and see, well, if this judge did commit a crime,
then it's fair to prosecute them.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
So that's important.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Now, Here's the other important thing to sort of understand
in the context of these criminal proceedings. These are state
judges who were hindering ice immigration customs enforcement from arresting
illegal aliens. We've had a lot of debate in America

(04:39):
over the last ten twelve years about what state governments
must do, should do, shouldn't do, must not do, What
state government officials have to do or not do as
far as their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. If immigration

(05:02):
enforcement is a federal job, which I don't know that
historically it always was, but the Supreme Court has basically
issued a bunch of decisions say that are basically saying, yes,
immigration is immigration enforcement's a federal job. Okay, if we
concede that immigration enforcement is a federal job, can the
federal government demand that state authorities turn over people in

(05:28):
their custody to the federal government for deportation purposes? Can
the federal government demand that state officials cooperate in some
way with federal enforcement work? And the answer we've more
or less landed on through judicial decisions is no, the

(05:51):
Feds cannot compel state governments to cooperate with their efforts
to enforce immigration law. They cannot force the state to
do that. Now, if an individual state wants to cooperate
with the Feds, they can't.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Florida, for example, very much wants to cooperate with federal
authorities to get rid of illegal aliens. Okay, but California
does not. California passes. And what has happened is states
like California have passed what we call sanctuary laws. The
idea of sanctuary laws is this state or this jurisdiction

(06:36):
is not going to cooperate, is not going to basically
go out of its way to provide information, to furnish information,
to assist with to positively do something to help further
the efforts of immigration enforcement authorities. And it's based on

(06:57):
federalist principles. Is the idea that we have to and
everyone in America has two sovereigns under whom they live,
your state government and your federal government. Okay, So we
have these two sort of coexisting layers of authority over us.
State governments are their own thing, and they aren't necessarily

(07:20):
they are not forced to be coerced to do things
by the federal government in those areas where they maintain autonomy.
So that is the case this case. I don't think
this case of this was Wisconsin judge. I don't think
this case touches that existing legal framework. I think this

(07:46):
case is a judge. It's not a question of this
Wisconsin judge, this Wisconsin official refusing to cooperate with federal
authorities a way that she doesn't have to. It's a
federal judge actively stymying federal immigration authorities, which another way

(08:13):
of calling that, Another way of describing that would be
obstruction of justice. Okay, doing something to hinder law enforcement
from doing their job. Blocking law enforcement from doing their job. Again,
I would agree this judge from Wisconsin is not required

(08:34):
to facilitate ice getting this guy. But she can't do
stuff to obstruct ice. She cannot actively grap and let
me read the description of what she did. Okay, So
this is a tweet thread describing it by Dan Lennington.

(08:54):
Dan is a civil rights lawyer and is the vice
president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which
is one of these kind of right leaning public policy
legal entities kind of in the universe of like Alliance
Defending Freedom and a lot of these sort of sort
of like the Rights answer to the aclu more or less. Okay,

(09:16):
this is his rundown. So he's a lawyer from Wisconsin,
he writes. The alien in question is this guy named Flora.
His last name is Flores Ruiz. What's his first name,
Eduardo Flores Ruiz. Okay, So Eduardo Flores Ruiz was in

(09:42):
the Milwaukee courthouse because he was accused of beating up
a man and a woman, sending them to the hospital,
three counts of domestic abuse. The victims were in the courtroom.
They were going to have a pre trial conference. Judge

(10:02):
Duggan found out the judge overseeing this criminal trial. So
this this guy is accused of three counts of domestic violence,
beating up two people. The victims are in the court room.
Judge Duggan found out though, that Ice agents were in

(10:22):
the hallway because this Floras Ruiz guy is an illegal alien.
So Duggan takes Flora's Ruiz. She puts him in the
jury box, which according to Dan Lennington, again this is
he's a Wisconsin lawyer, so this is his opinion. He
thinks that was a very unusual thing to do. And

(10:44):
then Duggan goes out into the hallway and confronts the
agents who are out there. The ICE agents were there lawfully,
with the knowledge of Milwaukee County. They announced themselves, They
connected with officers in the building, and they agreed to
wait in the hallway outside the courtroom, not interfering with

(11:05):
the hearing that was going on inside. As Lennington writes,
this is very standard and routine. Duggan goes out to
the hallway confronts the agents in a confrontational, angry demeanor.
This is according to the complaint filed the indictment from
the federal authorities. The agents explained they were there to

(11:27):
serve an arrest warrant. Duggan said they would need to
leave the courthouse. Then she escorted the agents away from
the courtroom down the hall. Ice agents, who are now
in the Chief Judge's chambers, were told that he was
not in the building. They were ushered into another private

(11:49):
area and found out the Chief Judge actually was there.
Now the agents are occupied elsewhere, Judge Duggan goes back
to her courtroom grabs Eduardo Flora's ruiz, the illegal alien
accused of beating up two people. While the Ice agents
are busy in one part of the building, Dugan takes

(12:12):
Flora's Ruiz out of the jury door to a non
public area, led him to the back elevator, allowed him
to escape the building away from the Ice agents. Now
the people he beat up, allegedly the people he beat
up are in the courtroom sitting there, as was the prosecutor.

(12:37):
They didn't know what was going on, and they didn't
know that Duggan Dugan comes back. She has canceled the
hearing because she just let the guy escape. So Duggan
cancels the hearing while he's outside Flora's Ruiz. He's on

(12:58):
the run, so he flees on foot down the street.
The officers scramble, they try to find him. Flora's Ruiz
sprints down the street and the officers apprehend him after
a foot chase. So this judge is literally helping this
dude make a break for it. She's busting him out

(13:18):
of the courtroom secret She distracts the uh, she distracts
the Ice agents. In one part, she takes the guy,
takes him to a back stairway, tells him go flee.
Lennington writes, this whole episode is absolutely outrageous. It is
very common to execute arrest warrants inside a courthouse, especially

(13:40):
by ice officers.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
It is safe.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Controlled, and officers know that the arrest will be unharmed.
If you're inside a courtroom, they've already done a security
check for you done. They've you know, you've gone through
a metal detector. They know you don't have a weapon
on you. So by secret Flora's ruiz out the back door,
Duggan put those officers safety at risk. She also ignored

(14:06):
the due process needs of the victims or the victims
of the crime were sitting there, the prosecutors sitting there.
He's trying to have the pre trial conference so that
these victims can get justice. This violated their rights. So
as a result, Duggan has been charged with two federal

(14:28):
felony offenses, obstruction of justice and concealing a fugitive. Both
of them are felonies. So, by the way, for those
who don't know, felony just means a crime that can
be punishable by a year or more in jail. That's
the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor. Misdemeanor means
not punishable by a year. Felony means punishable by a
year more. So these are felonies. With a five year
max sentence. She'll be indicted by a grand jury. Prosecutors

(14:52):
should use the process, Dan Lennington writes, to interview all
witnesses and consider charging a conspiracy. That's what he thinks
that they should consider charging conspiracy. And so now lawyer's warning.
By being a lawyer, I can give this warning. This

(15:14):
is one side of the case. That's the only side
we've heard, Okay, And I'll freely admit having worked as
a lawyer and read statements of fact from one side.
If you've got a good lawyer, they can present the
facts in such a way that they can make black
white and say that the sky is green and the

(15:37):
grass is blue. Okay. So I haven't heard what the
other side has to say. I haven't heard what this
judge has to say in her own defense. She's innos
until proven guilty. Okay. But if this is true, the
Feds have laid out what seems to be a very
actionable case. So the fear of this is just Donald

(16:00):
Trump going after his political foes because they don't support
his immigration. No, this indictment presents something that is on
its faith.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
This is the Trebortary show on the Valley's power talk.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
We got judges hiding illegal aliens in their homes. So
we've got this story liberals exploding because there was a
judge in Wisconsin. There's another judge in New Mexico being
prosecuted by federal authorities in relation to immigration stuff. And
so the knee jerk reaction from the left is, this

(16:35):
is Donald Trump bringing us closer to dictatorship, This is
an attack on democracy. However, pretty sure all these people
were tweeting saying repeating things during the entirety of the
Biden years when President Trump was being prosecuted for stuff,
repeatedly saying no one should be above the law, including

(16:57):
the president. No one is above the law. No one
is above the law. No one is above the law,
which frankly is a bit of a trite kind of
truism thing. I mean, people kept saying that in regards
to like President Trump, and actually conservatives would say it too.
When either President Trump or President Biden pardoned someone, people say,
this is disgraceful that he pardoned this person. No one

(17:18):
is above the law. Well, pardons are part of the law. Pardons, Yeah,
that's executive clemency is part of our legal system. You
may not like it, but it does effectively make someone
above the law. If the president does in fact pardon them,
you can say that the pardon was wise, unwise, nice, good, bad, indifferent, whatever,

(17:39):
but it is part of the law.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Let's talk about this judge in New Mexico. So ex
New Mexican. This is the story from the New York
Post ex New Mexico. Judge wife arrested for allegedly harboring
illegal trend de Aragua member in their home. A recently
resigned I think he got I think he resigned like
the day he got arrested. So I don't know that

(18:03):
ex judge is how accurate that is, but whatever or
if that's a fair way to describe him, I recently
resigned New Mexico judge and his wife were arrested in
a federal raid on their family home Thursday after it
was revealed they harbored an accused member of trende Aragua.
According to a report, democratic former Donia Anna County Magistrate

(18:26):
Judge Jose Joel Kano and his wife, Nancy Kano, each
face two charges of evidence tampering for allegedly harboring Christian
Ortega Lopez Christian. That's a name you don't hear c
R I S T H I A N.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
I've wondered this, are people in Latin America starting to
do the American thing of like taking a normal name
and misspelling it, like people who spell Emily like E
M y L E I g H or something like that,
Like is there some Spanish language equivalent of that happening

(19:08):
in Latin America? Because I keep seeing these baseball players
coming up. I don't know what this is, Like Robinson
Canoe was one of the first ones, Like how does
Robinson Canoe? I can't remember what country it was from.
I think it was from like Central America. I don't
think it was from I think it's from Central America,
South America or something Eddinson like Wilmer Lopez, like like

(19:29):
Wilmer Flores. Like all these baseball players from Latin America
who have these very weird like almost English sounding, like
it's like an English surname. Is this like a fad
with Latin American moms the way like you know k
Lee ka y L E I g H is with
uh with the new moms in the United States. I

(19:51):
don't know anyway, just my no. When you have a
radio show, you can engage in meaningless meanderings on a
as you would like to do anyway. Christhian Ortega Lopez
an accused illegal migrant who federal officials say as a
member of the Venezuelan gang Trend de Aragua in the

(20:12):
home of a New Mexico magistrate judge. Under President Trump,
we have arrested one hundred and fifty thousand aliens, including
more than six hundred members of the vicious trende Aragua gang,
Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome told The New York Post
on February twenty eighth, Ortega Lopez, aged twenty three, was

(20:32):
apprehended during an ice raid at the home of this
judge in Las Cruss, New Mexico, where the suspected gangbanger
lived in a guest house after first ingratiating himself as
a handyman. Fox News reported, citing court documents, earlier this week,
the Supreme Court of New Mexico permanently barred Kano from
serving on the bench due to the February arrest of

(20:54):
Ortega Lopez. The judge had resigned from the bench in
March Ice investigators claimed Ortego Lopez has trend A Aragua
related tattoos, social media posts and clothing. Other than that,
no evidence at all, and they claimed, that's my editorial comment.
And they used a search warrant to discover voicemails and
text messages relating to an alleged gang activity. In a

(21:17):
separate rate at the home of the couple's daughter, April Kano,
Ice investigators recovered four firearms. Oh great, holy crap, some
of which allegedly belonged to our take A Lopez investigator.
Investigators said, citing social media evidence, social media pictures show
or take A. Lopez posing for Christmas photos with the

(21:38):
Cano family and posing with weapons that he claimed belonged
to April Kano.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Donia.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Anna County has been a hotbed of illegal immigration and
drug trafficking, human smuggling for many, many years. Fromer Ice,
Field Officer Director John Fabricatore told wpm I, So it's
a station in New Mexico. To see that a judge
would allow this happen, it's very concerning. It's concerning what
else has the judge been doing? Fabricatory said, or Take

(22:05):
A Lopez allegedly entered the US unlawfully in twenty twenty three.
Thank you, Joe Biden crossing the border near Eagle Pass,
Texas on December fifteenth, and was released into the country
three days later, pending removal proceedings due to overcrowding at
the prison. Fox News reported, Yeah, it's probably another one
of the probably another one of the asylum claimants. Oh,

(22:28):
I'm seeking asylum. Oh okay, Well, we'll have your court
hearing to assess that in five years. In the meantime,
welcome to the United States. Okay. I will definitely not
come to that hearing. Maybe it was one of those
I'm not sure. So again, should we be concerned when
a hostile administration prosecutes the judge? Sure, we should be concerned.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
This is the Trevor carry Show, Condom Valley Spower Talk.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
This is John Girardi, by the way, fillin in for Trevor.
I'm the executive director at right Now Life of Central
California RTLCC dot org. I do development for the Obria
Medical Clinics of Central California Obria three six five dot
org Obria three six five dot org. If you want
to support our work helping lower income women with great
life affirming healthcare. I also write a bit nowadays for

(23:19):
National Review. If you go to my Twitter account Twitter
dot com slash Fresno Johnny, or you find me on Facebook,
you can find my most recent piece in National Review
talking about abortion and medicaid, how medical medicaid is pushing
women into abortion. All right, there we go, just got
to do the personal identification self promotion jazz. Okay, Steve

(23:41):
Hilton announced he's running for governor, and a lot of
Republicans really like Steve Hilton. And I'm only gonna make
I'm only gonna be talking for myself here. You know,
I don't think I'm not really in the business on
my show of doing endorsements or non indoor Smith's. I
just want to talk about him the you know, the good,

(24:03):
the bad, and the ugly. So just let's talk just overall.
Any Republican running for governor in twenty twenty six obviously
faces an uphill battle. To put it extremely mildly, Republicans

(24:24):
have not won a single statewide election since two thousand
and six. Not one. Not governor, not lieutenant governor, not
secretary of state, not insurance commissioner, not attorney general, not treasurer,
or controller, whichever one that is not one. Two thousand

(24:45):
and six was the last time we won a statewide election.
The last statewide office holder who was a Republican was
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left office in early January of twenty eleven. Right, So,
needless to say, it's an uphill battle for anybody, and

(25:12):
I think one of the dynamics that's problem, you know,
the last presidential election we had, along with now two
straight eight year gubernatorial terms that have not been very
successful from Democrats. Okay, Gavin Newsom is still talking about
the same problems he pledged he would fix when he

(25:35):
ran for governor eight years ago, and there's still problems today.
Wildfires are still a problem. Homelessness is still a problem.
Not building enough housing is still a problem, housing affordability,
cost of living, all of those things are still problems.
They were problems, and frankly, they were problems in the
twenty ten election cycle. They were problems in the twenty

(25:58):
fourteen election cycle. They were problems in the twenty eighteen
election cycle, they were problems in the twenty twenty two
election cycle. They were problems in the twenty twenty one
recall cycle. Okay, the same problems are here, and Democrats
have controlled everything the entire time.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Democrat.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
That's an important thing to understand for people that like you,
may think Democrats have a majority in our state legislature. No,
they don't have a majority. You can have a majority,
and then you can have a super majority if you
have two thirds of all the seats in the Assembly
in the state Senate. That allows you to increase taxes
whenever you want. It allows you to introduce new state
constitutional amendments that can become valid initiatives without the normal

(26:44):
qualifying process it used to be you need a two
thirds majority to pass a budget. You don't need that anymore.
Democrats don't even just have a two thirds majority. They
don't just have a majority. They don't just have a
super majority. They have a super supper duper majority, a
super duper Pooper Scooper majority. They have three quarters of

(27:07):
the seats, They have sixty of the eighty seats in
the Assembly, they have thirty of the forty seats in
the state Senate. They can lose some votes and still
do anything they want. They don't even have to acknowledge
the existence of the Republicans. The only debates are intra
Democrat debates. It's the completely insane Democrats and the moderately

(27:32):
insane Democrats.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
It's newsome and the legislative like that's all there is, okay,
So all the problems we've had for the last fifteen years,
it's all at their feet.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
They own it.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
So in a sane world, which may or may not
be the world that we inhabit here in the Golden State,
in a sane world, this would offer an opportunity maybe
for a Republican to win the governor's race, especially after
the wildfires in Los Angeles, which I think further disillusioned

(28:14):
and already fairly disillusioned electorate about all these Democrats that
we've been voting for for years and years and years
and years. We vote for Gavin Newsom, we vote for
Karen Bass.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
We pay so.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Much money in taxes and we cannot even get basic
services like fire prevention in return. So there's a window,
there's a window for a Republican. My fear is that

(28:50):
Steve Hilton just doesn't necessarily have the omph to be
that Republican, and that's not necessarily his you know, he's
a Fox News talking head that's his background. He's not

(29:10):
a particularly prominent guy. He doesn't really have much in
the way of a background of people knowing him and
liking him and having voted for him. There's no history
of that. Most of his outreach has been, you know,
doing stuff on Fox News and then kind of a

(29:33):
little bit preaching to the choir outreach anyone who's been
involved in conservative you know, so being on the local
conservative scene as I am, you know, hosting John Girardi Show,
and you know, being involved with conservative stuff. Steve Hilton
has spoken for every rubber chicken Republican dinner from Orange
County to Sacramento, Okay, from San Diego to from Diego

(29:57):
to the Bay or whatever. He's spoken for every rubber
chicken Republican. You know, the Manderra County Republican women shouldn't
to get together, the Orange County Republican Old Ladies Knitting
Club present Steve Hilton. He's spoken for everybody all up
and down the state for like the last year and
a half. Okay, so he's been doing a full court

(30:18):
press and he's been trying to get on media outlets
and trying to but I don't know that his reach
has extended much at all beyond Republicans, and state elections
in California do still rely very heavily on name recognition.
It's a big factor. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger win. Arnold

(30:44):
Schwarzenegger won because he ran against Cruz Bustamante, whom nobody
knew who he was in spite of the fact that
he was a lieutenant governor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was I
don't know, one of the five most recognizable names on
planet Earth at the time. Still today, probably I don't
even remember the name of the guy that Arnold ran

(31:04):
against in two thousand and six. Who did he run against.
I'm gonna literally look this up. Two thousand and six
California governor election. Uh da da da, phil Angelita's, phil Angelita's.

(31:24):
Arnold pounded him fifty six to thirty eight. Okay, so
you need name recognition to win, and I just don't
think Hilton's got that. Now, there's also the problem of money.

(31:45):
Here's the depressing fact about California politics. People don't win
elections in California on the strength of being a great debater. Right,
you go to Ohio and all the Senate candidates in
Ohio or having a then people watch it on the
local news and people vote. Okay, that's not how that,

(32:05):
ever works in California. California elections get won when you
have enough money to run television ads in the Los
Angeles market. That's how you win. If you get enough
money to have the dominant amount of TV ads in
LA and the LA television market. It's very expensive to

(32:28):
run ads there. But if you can do that, you
get the name recognition out and you win, plain and simple.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
That's how it works.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Frankly, that's been a disservice for California politicians who try
to vault to the national stage, Kamala Harris, because they
get to the national stage and they've never actually had
to have a real discussion with anybody, sit for a
real interview, sit down for a real debate, have any
kind of hostile interaction whatsoever. So Kamala Harris goes on

(32:57):
the debate stage during the twenty nineteen primary, during during
the twenty nineteen primary debate for the twenty twenty cycle
and looks like a total idiot, you know, gets completely
skewered by Tulsea Gabbard. So, in short, does Steve Hilton

(33:18):
have the wherewithal to get big money for the.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Assistent Trevor Cherry Show on The Valley's Power Talk.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Steve Hilton, just look, I recognize it's California. We're probably
not gonna have a lot of great options. I know,
I'm pro life, I'm you know, I recognize California is
maybe not electing a pro life governor anytime soon. Fair enough,
I get it. I guess what, I It just annoys me.

(33:48):
Hilton had this tweet out. This was two years This
was after Rovy Wade gets overturned. The day Roevy Wade
gets overturned, and he tweets out this thing. That's it's
just a real pet peeve of mine.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
He right.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
It is utterly depressing to see the issue of abortion
so deeply personal and emotive be hijacked and demagogued by politicians.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
This is the Trevor carry Show on The Valley's Power Talk.