The FBI on Friday , saying she āintentionally misdirectedā federal immigration agents away from a man they were trying to take into custody at her courthouse.
The judge's arrest escalates a clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary over the Republican presidentās sweeping crackdown. The Justice Department has previously signaled it was going to crack down on local officials who thwart federal immigration efforts.
Here's the latest:
Some see Trump weaponizing government by targeting judge and Democratic site
The Trump administration is providing another example of how itās targeting those the president feels are blocking his agenda.
The FBI arrested a Milwaukee judge it accused of impeding an immigration investigation, as the president feuds with judges he thinks are stonewalling his immigration agenda. And Trump himself directed his Department of Justice to investigate a prominent Democratic fundraising portal.
The acts show how Trump has used the power of the presidency to silence opposition. Experts warn that this is a typical feature of authoritarian governments.
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The US oversees a peace pledge for east Congo
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has overseen the signing by Congo and Rwanda of a pledge to work toward a peace deal that would ease U.S. access to critical minerals in resource-rich eastern Congo.
The deal would bring U.S. influence to bear in a minerals trade that has helped fuel conflict that has killed millions over the past three decades.
Rubioās participation in Fridayās ceremony is an early step in what the Trump administration says is a rebuilding of U.S. foreign policy to focus on transactions of direct financial or strategic benefit to the United States. Congo and Rwanda hope U.S. involvement will calm the violence that has defied peacekeeping and negotiation since the mid-1990s.
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Trump calls for Ukraine and Russia to meet for āvery high levelā talks
Trump posted on his Truth Social site shortly after arriving in Rome for Pope Francisā funeral that it was a āgood dayā of talks and meetings between the two sides. His envoy, had made a visit to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
āThey are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to āfinish it off,āā Trump wrote. āMost of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!ā
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Kennedy Center events scheduled for LGBTQ+ pride celebration have been canceled
Organizers and the Kennedy Center have canceled a weekās worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights for this summerās World Pride festival in Washington, D.C.
The events at the center had been planned for June 5 to 8.
Multiple artists and producers involved in the centerās Tapestry of Pride schedule told The Associated Press that their events had been quietly canceled or moved to other venues.
Washingtonās Capital Pride Alliance has disassociated itself from the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Centerās website still lists Tapestry of Pride on its website with a general description. The center didnāt respond to a request for comment.
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Trump arrives in Rome for Pope Francisā funeral
The president, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, will overnight at the U.S. ambassadorās residence in Rome.
He said he may meet with some people Friday night and Saturday on the sidelines of the funeral service at St. Peterās Basilica.
Justice Department to resume issuing subpoenas to journalists as part of leaks crackdown
The U.S. Justice Department is poised to crack down on leaks of information to the news media, authorizing prosecutors to issue subpoenas to news organizations as part of leak investigations, serve search warrants when appropriate and force journalists to testify about their sources.
New regulations, announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi in a memo to the workforce obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, rescind a Biden administration policy that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations ā a practice long decried by news organizations and press freedom groups.
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Judge blocks Tru
mp administration from nixing collective bargaining for most federal employees
A key part of °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās March 27 order canāt be enforced at roughly three dozen agencies and departments where employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled Friday.
The union said the order would cancel collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees. The union also said it would lose more than half of its revenue and over two-thirds of its membership if the judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction.
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19 states sue Trump administration over push to end DEI programs in public schools
A lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general in 19 states seeks to block the Department of Education from withholding money following an April 3 directive ordering states to certify that they have rejected what the government calls āillegal DEI practices.ā States also were told to certify their compliance by April 24.
Instead, the plaintiffs informed the government that they stand by their prior certifications of compliance with the law but refuse to abandon their diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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Schumer says Trump canāt just arrest US judges
āThere are no kings in America,ā Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Schumer called the Wisconsin judgeās arrest āa dangerous escalation, an attack on the separation of powers.ā
āWe will fight this with everything we have,ā he said.
Trump says heāll be meeting with world leaders in Rome but suggests doing so may be āa little disrespectfulā
Trump is repeating his plans to meet with āsome people in Romeā including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
But he also suggested to reporters on Air Force One flying to Rome that such meetings would come āa little bit quicklyā and added, āFrankly, itās a little disrespectful to have meetings when youāre at the funeral of a pope.ā
Trump nonetheless insisted, āIāll be talking to people. Iāll be seeing a lot of people.ā
One person he doesnāt expect to see is former President Joe Biden. Trump said he didnāt know his predecessor would be at Pope Francisā funeral and, asked if theyād meet, said, āItās not high on my list. Itās really not.ā
Things to know about Hannah Dugan
Dugan has been a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge since her election in 2016.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Dugan āincreased danger to the publicā 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.
Duganās lawyer says the judge āregrets and protests her arrest.ā
She is due back in court May 15.
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Wisconsinās Democratic governor accuses Trump of undermining the judiciary āat every levelā
In a statement on the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using ādangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level.ā
āI have deep respect for the rule of law, our nationās judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime,ā Evers said. āI will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.ā
Trump says Zelenskyy is late to sign minerals deal
The long-delayed agreement over U.S. access to Ukraineās mineral deposits remains unfinished, according to Trump.
He posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy āhas not signed the final papersā and it is āat least three weeks late.ā Trump asked Zelenskyy, who he has been pressuring to make concessions to end the war with Russia, to handle it āIMMEDIATELY.ā
āSUCCESS seems to be in the future!ā Trump wrote.
The president is on his way to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis. Zelenskyy was also expected to attend, but he may not make it amid Russian attacks.
A senior Republican senator pushes back on °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās plans for Ukraine
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is pushing back on °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās plans to make concessions to Russia as he seeks to end the war in Ukraine.
In a social media post, Grassley asks Trump to put āthe toughest of sanctionsā on Russian President Vladmir Putin. He says the Republican president should be able to see that his Russian counterpart āis playing America as a patsy.ā
Republican senators have been reticent to publicly push back on °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās foreign policy plans, even though traditional Republicans are often at odds with his aims. However, with Congress taking a break from Washington this week, a few hawkish GOP senators like Grassley and Sen. Roger Wicker have taken to social media to decry Putin.
Similarities to another judge prosecuted during °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās first term
Judge Hannah Duganās arrest is similar to a case during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge accused of helping a man sneak out a back door of a courthouse to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent.
That prosecution sparked outrage from many in the legal community, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors dropped the case against Newton District Judge Shelley Joseph in 2022 under the Democratic Biden administration after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin slams the arrest of Judge Dugan
Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a āgravely serious and drastic moveā that āthreatens to breachā the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.
āMake no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a Democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,ā Baldwin said in an emailed statement after Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested.
āBy 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,ā she said.
Iran talks are progressing, Trump says
The president expressed confidence that will lead to a deal on Iran's nuclear program that āwould be good for humanity.ā
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon would ultimately save their country ābillions and billions of dollars.ā
āHaving a nuclear weapon is really expensive,ā he said. āBut itās also very dangerous. And they canāt have a nuclear weapon.ā
Trump once again hinted at the possibility of violence if an agreement isnāt reached.
āThere are some people who want to make a different kind of a deal, a much nastier deal,ā he said. āAnd I donāt want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.ā
Melania Trump gets an unexpected trip to Rome and an airplane meal for her 55th birthday
āSheās got a working birthday,ā Trump told reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One. The Trumps are flying to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, which is also the first ladyās 55th birthday.
Asked if heāll take her to dinner, Trump said amid some laughter that, āIāll take her for dinner on the Boeing. Iāll take her for dinner on Air Force One.ā
Trump on Texas GOP Senate primary: āIāll make a decision somewhere along the lineā
The president is leaving open the possibility that heāll endorse in the already-nasty Texas Senate primary race between Sen. John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the stateās attorney general.
āI like Paxton, I like Cornyn, theyāre both good people,ā Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One en route to Rome on Friday. āSo Iāll make a decision somewhere along the line. But you have two very good men.ā
He added: āIn a way, I wish they werenāt running against each other.ā
Trump canāt rule out insider trading by staff as tariff policies cause markets to whipsaw
President Donald Trump said he couldnāt rule out members of his administration sharing tips on his tariff policies and trade negotiations with traders on Wall Street, saying āI can commit to myself, thatās all I can commit to.ā
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said that while he couldnāt be sure, he hires āhonorable peopleā and that āI have thousands of people that work for me, but I canāt imagine anybody doing that.ā
He was responding to news reports that some administration officials have provided non-public updates to traders and financial executives amid market turmoil caused by °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās steep tariffs on American imports.
Deportation fears raise ethical issues for student journalists
Student journalists on college campuses across the country are fielding requests to remove previously published content, offer anonymous sourcing and retract bylines.
That comes amid the Trump administrationās , fears of deportation for international students and what critics have described as unprecedented .
Many young editors are beginning to reconsider long-standing journalistic practices around transparency, in order to protect the people who appear in their reports. The Student Press Law Center and other media rights groups have responded by urging student journalists to be more flexible about requests to take down content.
ICE is reversing the termination of legal status for international students, a government lawyer says
The records had been suddenly terminated in recent weeks, often without the students or their schools being notified.
Many of those students have filed court challenges throughout the United States. Judges had already issued temporary orders restoring the studentsā records in a federal database of international students maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
A lawyer for the government read a statement in federal court in Oakland on Friday that said ICE was manually restoring the student statuses.
Brian Green, a lawyer who represents a plaintiff challenging their termination, said a government lawyer told him the reversal would apply to all students in the same situation, not just those who had filed lawsuits.
āJudge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest,ā attorney says
Judge Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee judge who was arrested by the FBI on accusations she helped a man evade immigration authorities, appeared briefly in federal court Friday before being released from custody.
Her next court appearance is May 15.
āJudge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,ā her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing. He declined to comment to an Associated Press reporter following her court appearance.
The arrest comes amid a growing feud between the Trump administration and the judiciary over the White Houseās immigration enforcement policies.
FBI director: Wisconsin judge accused of helping someone evade immigration agents has been arrested
FBI Director Kash Patel made the announcement in a post on X and said his office believes Judge Hannah Dugan āintentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse.ā
Patel identified the subject as Eduardo Flores Ruiz and said Duganās actions allowed Ruiz to evade arrest.
The Justice Department didnāt immediately have a comment Friday. A person answering the phone Friday at Duganās office said he couldnāt comment. The Associated Press left an email and voicemail Friday morning seeking comment from Milwaukee County Courts Chief Judge Carl Ashley.
The arrest marks an escalation in the Trump administrationās fight with the judiciary over the White Houseās sweeping immigration enforcement policies. The Justice Department had previously signaled it was going to crack down on local officials thwarting federal immigration efforts.
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Environmental groups fear °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās order to speed deep-sea mining will harm ecosystems
The groups are decrying an executive order signed by President Trump to expedite deep-sea mining for ores and minerals, saying it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems and ignores an ongoing process to adopt international rules for the practice.
°Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both U.S. and international waters.
The move comes as China controls many critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese used in high-tech manufacturing, including for military uses. Trump said his order āestablishes the U.S. as a global leader in seabed mineral exploration and development both within and beyond national jurisdiction.ā
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Municipalities in several Republican-led states sue Trump administration for cutting federal money
The billions in federal dollars supported COVID-19 initiatives and other public health projects throughout the country.
The City of Columbus ā the capital of Ohio, and the largest city in the state ā filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday.
It alleges that some $11 billion in funding cuts to such programs had already been approved by Congress and so are being unconstitutionally withheld. The litigation further charges that the administrationās actions violate Department of Health and Human Services regulations.
In a statement, Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, a Democrat, said the cuts have forced the city to fire 11 of its 22 infectious disease staffers, even as measles outbreaks are spreading to multiple U.S. states and diseases like whooping cough and mpox are on the rise.
The cities of Kansas City, Missouri; Davidson County and Nashville, Tennessee; as well as Harris County, Texas; home to Houston, also joined the suit.
Former President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, will attend Pope Francisā funeral
Thatās confirmed by his office.
Biden was only the second Roman Catholic American president, and frequently attended church while in office and met with the pope at least twice during his term.
They were to meet in January days before Biden left office Jan. 20, but the trip was called off because of devastating wildfires in California.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth travels to the southern border
Heās traveling to the southern border corridor that was recently turned over to the Defense Department as part the Trump administrationās effort to detain migrants crossing into the U.S.
Kingsley Wilson, a Pentagon spokesperson, said he was going to the New Mexico National Defense area.
The long sliver of land, known as the Roosevelt Reservation, is a 60-foot-wide federal buffer zone that ribbons along the border from New Mexico to California, except where it encounters tribal or privately owned land. It had been run by the Interior Department until Trump directed control be transferred to the Defense Department in a earlier this month.
By taking control of the land and turning it over to the Army, U.S. troops will now be able to detain anyone whoās trespassing on military land.
Chinese embassy gives no comment on °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās claim of getting a call from Xi
The Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday said it has no comment when asked if Chinese President Xi Jinping has had a recent call with Trump, as claimed by the U.S. president.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump said heād received a call from Xi but didnāt make it clear when and if such a call took place. This morning, he provided no clarity when speaking to reporters while leaving the White House for his trip to Rome to attend Pope Francisā funeral.
Earlier Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry again denied any consultation or negotiation with the U.S. on tariffs.
āThe U.S. should stop creating confusion,ā said Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesman.
Trump says heās ābeing inundatedā with requests to seek a third term
And he insists āthere are some loopholesā to the constitutional bar preventing presidents from seeking a third term.
During an interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked about saying he was ānot jokingā about seeking a third term previously. He responded, āThere are some loopholes.ā
But, Trump added, āI donāt believe in using loopholes.ā
The 22nd Amendment states, āNo person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.ā
A possible way around that would be for Vice President JD Vance to be elected president in 2028, then step aside in favor of Trump.
Trump said he didnāt āknow anything aboutā that possibility, but also noted, āI am being inundated with requests.ā
Wall Streetās rally fades as more CEOs talk about uncertainty ahead because of °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās trade war
Wall Streetās is running out of momentum Friday and U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading as they near the end of another week.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading, though the majority of stocks within it were falling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 10 points, or less than 0.1% , as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Intel weighed on the market after the chip company said itās seeing āelevated uncertainty across the industryā and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analystsā expectations. Its stock fell 7.6% even though its results for the beginning of the year topped expectations.
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Trump calls Pope Francis āa fantastic kind of guyā while leaving for his funeral
The president and first lady Melania Trump are heading to Rome for the funeral.
Speaking to reporters before boarding a helicopter to Air Force One, the president said, āWeāre going to Rome to pay our respects and weāll be leaving that same day.ā
He repeated his predictions that heāll be meeting with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the funeral. But exactly what that might entail is unclear. Trump even suggested that a meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was possible. He added of the possibility of several meetings: āItās going to be very interesting.ā
Trump said he met Francis twice and that the pope āloved the world, actually, and he was just a good man.ā
āI thought he was a fantastic kind of a guy,ā Trump said.
A call with Chinese President Xi Jinping?
Trump raised eyebrows in an interview with Time magazine when he claimed to have received a call from Xi.
If true, it would be a notable development in the tariff standoff between the worldās two largest economies.
But itās unclear when or if such a call took place, and Trump provided no clarity when speaking to reporters while leaving the White House for his trip to Rome to attend Pope Francisā funeral.
āI donāt want to comment on that,ā Trump said. āIāve spoken to him many times.ā
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has previously denied negotiations have been taking place. The National Security Council did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump and Zelenskyy among dignitaries converging on Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis
Heads of state and royalty will start converging on Rome on Friday for the funeral of in the Vaticanās St. Peterās Square, but the group of poor people who will meet his casket in a small crosstown basilica are more in keeping with Francisā humble persona and disdain for pomp.
Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are among the leaders arriving Friday, the last day the will lie in state in before his coffin is sealed in the evening in preparation for his funeral Saturday.
The says 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.
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Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehranās nuclear program return Saturday to Oman
There, of any possible deal.
The talks seek to limit Iranās nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic .
Trump has repeatedly threatened to if a deal isnāt reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
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Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal, AP sources say
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagonās security protocols set up in his office to on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Known as a ādirtyā internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the userās information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagonās secured connections maintain.
Other Pentagon offices have used them, particularly if thereās a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked.
ā Tara Copp
Trump orders Justice Department to investigate Democratsā top fundraising platform
In an executive order signed Thursday, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations.
Democrats, condemned the move Thursday and ActBlue called it an āoppressive use of powerā by the White House.
āThe Trump Administrationās and GOPās targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America. Todayās escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition,ā ActBlue said in a statement.
ActBlue said it would pursue āall legal avenues to protect and defend itself.ā
°Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās order directs Bondi, in consultation with the Treasury Department, to investigate allegations that online fundraising platforms, and specifically ActBlue, have been used by some to āmake āstrawā or ādummyā contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees.ā
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Trump says Russia should keep Crimea
The president sat down with Time magazine for an interview marking 100 days in office, a milestone that he crosses next week.
During the conversation, which was , Trump said āCrimea will stay with Russia.ā The strategic peninsula was seized by Russia in 2014, years before the full-scale invasion in 2022.
āEverybody understands that itās been with them for a long time,ā the president said. āItās been with them long before Trump came along.ā
āTheyāve had their submarines there for long before any period that weāre talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,ā Trump said. āBut this was given by Obama. This wasnāt given by Trump.ā
How the publicās shift on immigration paved the way for °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās crackdown
Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has and . But unlike in his first term, °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās efforts have not sparked the kind of widespread condemnation or protests that from some unpopular positions.
Instead, immigration has emerged as one of °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās strongest issues in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment that is driven in part, interviews suggest, by of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
The White House has seized on this shift, mocking critics and egging on Democrats to engage on an issue that °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās team sees as a win.
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Immigration is °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās strongest issue, but many say heās gone too far, a new AP-NORC poll finds
°Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās handling of immigration remains a point of strength as he takes to ramp up deportations and target people in the U.S. illegally, according to a new poll.
The survey from finds that 46% of U.S. adults approve of °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade with other countries.
While °Õ°ł³Ü³¾±čās actions remain divisive, thereās less of a consensus that the Republican president has overstepped on immigration than on other issues. Still, thereās little appetite for an even tougher approach. About half of Americans say heās āgone too farā when it comes to deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Theyāre divided on the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants who are accused of being gang members to El Salvador, and more oppose than support revoking foreign studentsā visas over their participation in pro-Palestinian activism.
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The Associated Press
