In today’s episode of Sekulow, we delve into the complexities surrounding the conviction of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. Found guilty of obstructing federal immigration officials, her case raises significant questions about accountability within the judiciary. As the legal community and public weigh in on the implications, we explore what this means for the rule of law and judicial ethics. Join us as we dissect the verdict and the potential ramifications for Judge Dugan as we head into the appeals process, while also taking calls from listeners nationwide.
SPEAKER 17 :
Today on Sekulow, we have breaking news, a felony conviction for a rogue judge. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host… Welcome to Seculo and happy Friday for you all. If you want to get on air and talk to me today, go ahead and call me at 1-800-684-3110 because we have a lot to talk about, including this rogue judge out of Wisconsin. You may remember earlier this year, back in April, this judge was accused of helping an illegal migrant who was before her court evade detention and arrest from immigration officials. What happened there was these officials came to serve a warrant at the courthouse where this individual was before this judge, Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin. And when the judge found out about this, that the agents were there waiting, not getting in the way of the proceedings, but waiting until they were over. She caused a pause in the proceedings in her courtroom, went outside and spoke with the agents, told them they weren’t allowed to do this and needed to go talk to the chief judge. So sent them. And while they were distracted going to talk to the chief judge who actually said, yes, you can do this. You are doing everything right. You had gotten all the pre discussions with the security involved. This is actually a place where a lot of times these type of arrests happen because it is seen as safer for the public. If there is a contentious arrest, they have already gone through security. They know that weapons will not be present that could put officers or the individual or the public in greater danger. Chief Judge says you are allowed to do this. Thank you. Just wait until the proceedings are over. And what did the judge Hannah Dugan do during this time? She helped that individual escape out the back, go through her chambers with the individual’s attorney and escape law enforcement. There was a foot chase outside the courthouse and that individual was apprehended. But it didn’t end there because this judge was accused of stopping and interfering with the enforcement duties of the immigration officials. She was charged with a crime. This crime included two counts. One was an obstruction charge against federal law enforcement. The other was a misdemeanor charge that would have been a concealment of an individual for arrest. Yesterday, a jury of her peers convicted her of that obstruction charge, the felony charge. She was acquitted of the misdemeanor concealment charge, but this felony obstruction charge has been handed down by a jury of her peers. They will be appealing it. As a matter of fact, their legal team said this trial required considerable resources to prepare for and public support for Judge Dugan’s defense fund is critical as we prepare for the next phase of this defense, meaning their appeal. This felony conviction could see up to five years in jail time. Also under Wisconsin state law, she will no longer, as a convicted felon, at least at this point, be able to be a judge again in the state of Wisconsin. So there is some accountability. And once again, sometimes we see the wheels of justice turn slowly. But in this case, the event happened in April and we have a conviction here today. in December of 2025. I want to hear your thoughts on this. Is this a sign for the public that there is accountability when someone goes way beyond the legal limits, thinking they are above the law? A judge in the United States thinking, I know what’s better. I’m going to break the law to conceal an individual and obstruct federal law enforcement duties. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110 if you want to talk about this or anything else we’ve talked about this week, whether it be the FBI not thinking they had probable cause to raid Mar-a-Lago. talk about the anti-Semitism we’ve seen rise in this country. Give me a call, 1-800-684-3110. But we are closing out our Raise Your Voice Week. It’s an important time at the ACLJ. I’m going to show you more clips from this project we are working on that we want you to be involved in. Have your donation doubled and raise your voice today at aclj.org slash voice. We’ll be right back with more. Welcome back to Sekulow. We’re talking about this verdict that was handed down last night by a jury in Wisconsin against the Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who was found guilty of obstructing federal immigration agents during an attempt to serve a warrant at the courthouse. And I want you to remember also, this judge tried in some of the pretrial motions to claim that the Supreme Court decision that presidents of the United States have an immunity against being charged with a crime for official acts. That was a defense in pretrial motions that the attorneys for this judge tried to raise. Say basically, look, Supreme Court gave the president of the United States immunity for official acts. Therefore, I’m immune. It made no logical sense. It was a good try and was obviously not accepted by the judge here. The whole idea that no one is above the law and that the left was saying it was so dangerous that the president of the United States had this limited immunity decision by the Supreme Court, which said, listen, if it’s within the official acts of the president of the United States, you cannot then try to go after a president for things they did as president as a crime later. That would lead to chaotic, continuous prosecution of former presidents by political enemies. that isn’t what happened here what happened here was a judge that is supposed to be an arbiter of the law judging calling balls and strikes as they say decided to take the law into her own hands the individual was before her court for a completely different reason and u.s immigration officials came there to serve a warrant which was issued for this individual And she ran interference for this individual that was in her courtroom. She went out and tried to stop the agents, distracted them by sending them to talk to the chief judge. And during that time, snuck this individual who had snuck into our country illegally out of the back of her courtroom, through her own chambers in an attempt to let them flee justice. That doesn’t sound like what we want from judges in this country, but it’s what she did. And she had her day in court and she had a speedy trial. And here we are in December where she now is a convicted felon. under the laws of the United States. Now, she will have an appeals process and they’re already asking for money to raise money for her defense fund so they can continue going through with this. But under the law in Wisconsin, she cannot be a judge there anymore with this felony conviction. She is a convicted felon. I want to go to Jerry calling from Rhode Island on line one. Jerry, you’ve got a question about this. You’re on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 20 :
If memory serves me correct, I believe she was on hiatus or administrative leave pending this. Now that she’s been convicted under the appeal, is she allowed to go back to rule from the bench or is she on extended leave still until the appeal is over?
SPEAKER 17 :
It’s a great question, Jerry. Yes, you’re right. The Wisconsin Supreme Court put her on suspension, but it was with pay. So she was still making her close to $200,000 a year salary in the state of Wisconsin, which While not working during this entire process. This just came out last night, so we haven’t heard from the court whether or not she has been removed from the bench based off of this felony conviction. But she is a convicted felon under the law. The appeals process, we’ll see how the Supreme Court of Wisconsin decides to allow that to play out. But at this trial court level, she is a convicted felon today. The verdict may be overturned on appeal. We don’t know that. There is a lot of road ahead for this judge as she continues down there. But as far as is being reported today, and news outlets have reached out trying to get a response, but there has been nothing from the higher court about how this verdict affects the current employment status of this individual we’ll see and my hope would be that at the trial court level you’re a convicted felon then under the law she should no longer be on the bench If something were to happen in the appeals process, they can undo those parameters they put on you. But I don’t think that the trial court should be lowered in its importance by just saying, we’re going to wait and see how this plays out. That being said, we will see what they do. Another angle here is that this just happened and the sentencing has not been announced yet. The sentencing date. The penalty for this charge that she was convicted on is up to five years in prison. Now, this is a first time offense by a judge. Do I think that this individual will serve five years in prison? I think it would be highly unlikely that it goes that far, but we will see what the punishment and the penalty ends up being in this case. I would assume we will have news on that soon and we will bring it to you when we find out when they schedule a sentencing and where that goes. But it is a serious offense, up to five years in prison for what she was convicted on. I want to go to Deb calling from Oregon on line three. And once again, if you are watching and you have a comment or question, you want to call in 1-800-684-3110. But Deb, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 14 :
Judge Dugan’s conviction gives me hope. I feel her crime was egregious and deliberate and And she should get five years in prison, in my opinion, and should not be allowed to serve one more day as judge nor receive any more salary.
SPEAKER 17 :
Deb, I tend to agree with you on that. I’m not obviously an expert on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, how they will look at this, if she will be immediately removed from the bench or if they will allow her to be in this suspended position. kind of limbo I would assume but once again this is just a thought not anything backed up by a fact or history that they’ve had in something like this it’s also a pretty novel case but I would assume that the suspension with pay would turn into suspension without pay at very least if they allowed her to remain technically as judge while the appeal plays out but if I were the one making the decision I would say there is a conviction It can be revisited if for some reason this conviction is overturned. But at this point, you’re a convicted felon in the eyes of the law. And under the state law, she is not eligible to hold public office. It seems pretty cut and dry there. But once again, Deb, I did appreciate what the U.S. attorney said in the press conference. We played it in the break. I’m not sure if we have it, but if we do, put it in the chat for me. But he effectively said… This is one case, one individual. She is not an evil person, nor is she a martyr for a cause. And I think the concern from the US attorney there is warranted that because of the high stakes of this, because of the emotions that go into this, we saw how bad the riots in LA and other places where many other people were trying to obstruct federal law enforcement from doing their job, how it broke out. Cars being set on fire. It required a National Guard response from the president of the United States. The U.S. attorney is trying to avoid that breaking out in Milwaukee in the Christmas holiday season, saying, listen, we did our job. There is a conviction. But let’s you can voice yourself peacefully, but let’s not cause havoc over this conviction. And I think the process played out well. But to that point as well, I understand what the U.S. attorney is trying to do there and agree with that position from the U.S. attorney instead of him coming out and saying this is a warning to every single person in the country that you shall not obstruct. But in reality, that is what it is. Because we have seen rogue judges since day one of the new Trump administration, whether it be nationwide injunctions, which we had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court, whether it be the egregious act of this judge of trying to take the law into her own hands. It should be a statement for judges that you are not above the law. It is not your job to be the jury in a federal immigration case that is not before you when there is a warrant out for someone’s arrest to decide then and there that you are going to help someone flee. So I do, to Deb’s point, I hope this is a sign, a course correction For many in this country that think that anything that is done by the federal government and the president of the United States is an evil, illegal order. Therefore, we must do whatever we can to stop it because that has been the talking point of the Democrat Party and elected members of Congress ever since November 4th when President Trump won re-election. Resist. You heard it in 2016 when he won the presidency. Resist. That has been their mantra against the President of the United States. And that isn’t going to help keep law and order in this country. We got to a point where judges, this judge in particular, is now a convicted felon for trying to obstruct the law. This is not the United States of America that we live in. This is a course correction, hopefully, and you will see no more of these shenanigans and rogue judges acting like this. Once again, I want to take your phone calls, 1-800-684-3110. We are in the last day of Raise Your Voice Week. Your donation is doubled, and it’s the last time to get your name in the credits of our new project. As a founding producer, go to aclj.org slash voice and donate today. Welcome back to Seculo. And I do want to take some time here in this segment to talk about the Chilling Effect, the new project that our media team is working on. The War on Free Speech is the subtitle. And it is a very important thing here at the ACLJ. The core mission is protecting First Amendment rights here at the ACLJ. So what we have seen over the past few years, this chilling effect, because of the heavy hand of government, through censorship, through threats of arrest, through any of the other ways that they have gotten in the way of Americans’ free speech right, we’ve been fighting back against. And this new series that we’re working on, it’s in production now, but as Logan says, we want, we started seeing what was being produced already and knew that it could be much bigger. And that’s where you come in to join alongside of us. We do this from time to time when we start working on a project and we see what it can be. And we know that you, the viewer, the listener of the secular broadcast, you know what we put out as the final product. We know that you will join with us to make it bigger and better and make Everyone that can see it, see it. Get it as far and wide as we can. And so that’s why we decided to turn to this week here in December, the Raise Your Voice Week, because you can stand alongside us as we get this message out, but also continuing. the work of the ACLJ. When you raise your voice with us, we are much stronger. And that’s what we are doing this week. We are highlighting what you can do, how you can join us by raising your own voice. And you can go to ACLJ.org slash voice to be a part of this. But I want to play a few clips from this because I think it also ties in here. When you think about what the left has done over the past few years, what they’ve gotten away with, where when they want to push back and they want to literally create riots in the street or a judge that takes the law into her own hands. And then you think about the way that conservatives are treated for lawfully exercising their freedom of speech or their freedom of religion. It’s so stark. And that’s why we can’t give up this fight because if you are a Christian or you are a conservative, or if you are Jewish in this country, The left is coming after you and they want to silence you and they want to distort what you do and who you are. And that’s why not only through the work of the ACLJ, but our media arm as well, we have to push back. We have to showcase what we are fighting against. Because some stories, you may hear a headline, you may see a blog post on ACLJ.org that someone was arrested for their freedom of speech. And it sounds like we’ve heard this a thousand times. This is what the ACLJ has been fighting for 35 years. But when you can see and hear the individuals, Their courage that you can stand with is remarkable. Their calling that they are committed to. And they have to have allies like the ACLJ and folks like you, the listener and supporter and the champions of ACLJ that will stand with them in this fight. So first, I want to play for you the trailer of this series that has been put together. Logan called it a teaser trailer, a stinger trailer. It is fantastic. From the concepts that we have already put together, but there is so much out there that we are working on even currently and look forward to doing in early 2026. So let’s go ahead and run this trailer for folks so they can get a concept of where it is. And then I want to play some from a specific segment right after that, and I’ll pitch to it. So let’s go ahead and play that trailer.
SPEAKER 08 :
You look at the First Amendment, we have five liberties under the First Amendment. Your right to practice your faith, your right to assemble, your right to petition to government, free press, free speech. All critically important. Most important in my judgment is your right to talk.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is your baby girl or your baby boy. This is not a clump of cells. This is not a parasite. This is your baby.
SPEAKER 09 :
Today, while we have the time, call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
SPEAKER 05 :
If someone believes that government is going to punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights, they might choose not to express themselves at all.
SPEAKER 03 :
The FBI will crush you. This government will crush you if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing that are wrong.
SPEAKER 08 :
He’s allowed to come forward under the law and tell us things that he believes that are happening that aren’t supposed to.
SPEAKER 10 :
Being here in America, I thought that it is our right to go out and share our faith.
SPEAKER 15 :
We’re always a little bit fearful that he or I will be taken to jail.
SPEAKER 18 :
Is the government watching? Is there a chance I could face some kind of negative consequence now or down the road?
SPEAKER 12 :
I was the one preaching on the mic when the police came. They came to me and said I should shut it down. When God tells you what to do, you cannot hesitate.
SPEAKER 06 :
How many arrests will it take for you to stop? I can’t stop.
SPEAKER 17 :
Once again, that was kind of the concept trailer that our team put together, which is wonderful. And the working title, The Chilling Effect, I mean, you get chills watching that, hearing these stories of these individuals. Also seeing people like Senator Mike Lee or Chairman Jim Jordan in those pieces that talk about the very core issues the ACLJ believes in and fights for every single day. We had attorneys in court yesterday, just ahead of Christmas. in Colorado fighting for our clients. So the work here does not stop. And we have seen this uptick in the heavy hand of government going after religious speech. It’s not going after protesters that want to shut down roads and set cars on fire and completely sow chaos in major cities that they seem to be worried about in some of these Democrat cities. Instead, it’s the peaceful street preacher the peaceful person on the sidewalk sharing their faith, sharing the good news, that’s who gets arrested. And so I want to play this clip as well. This is about religious speech that we are seeing this attack on. And I will be back right after this short clip, but it’s powerful when you watch it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Today, while we have the time, call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
SPEAKER 05 :
If someone believes that government is going to punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights, they might choose not to express themselves at all.
SPEAKER 10 :
Being here in America, I thought that it is our right to go out and share our faith.
SPEAKER 12 :
I was the one preaching on the mic when the police came. They came to me and said, I should shut it down.
SPEAKER 08 :
Someone on the other side, in the exact same location, on a public sidewalk, wouldn’t be arrested, wouldn’t be harassed. That’s not free speech, that’s not fair, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. The message gets around.
SPEAKER 19 :
If you street preach, you will face court obligations, fines, fees. We absolutely believe that this is done with that purpose.
SPEAKER 10 :
At the end of the day, every time we step out into the street, we have to be ready to give our life.
SPEAKER 06 :
How many arrests will it take for you to stop? Six, seven.
SPEAKER 11 :
I can’t stop.
SPEAKER 17 :
That line there at the end, it shows the courage of the clients of the ACLJ. How many arrests will it take to get you to stop? Effectively, how far does the government have to go to get you to stop exercising your freedom of speech, your freedom of religion? And our client responds with, I can’t stop. That is true courage. That is the hero of these stories. The client that is doing what they are called to do and exercising their constitutional rights, doing it and seeing state governments, city governments come after them with the heavy hand of law enforcement, arresting them, putting them in the back of police cars. And we have to defend them in court. We have to defend their rights to express their faith. You can join those courageous clients by raising your voice today at ACLJ.org slash voice. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow, second half hour ahead. We’ve got a lot to cover here as well. But if you’re just joining us, we see that a jury in Wisconsin has convicted Judge Hannah Dugan of a felony count of obstructing the immigration officials trying to execute a search warrant against an illegal migrant that was before her court. This is something that we were very concerned about early in the administration. We saw rogue judges around the country going beyond their legal limits, testing the legal limits. And many went too far. And you saw the Supreme Court course correct that when it came to these nationwide injunctions. But you saw others go too far in a different way. And an example of that is what this judge in Wisconsin did, where she was able to distract federal agents, run interference, and sneak out the migrant out of the back of her courtroom, through her chambers, in an attempt to help him flee from federal immigration forces. Now, they were able to have a foot chase and ended up arresting that migrant. But the judge did face accountability, was suspended by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court earlier this year. But then the court case came. The U.S. attorney brought the case in charges against her. And she’s now, as of right now, a convicted felon. Her attorneys obviously signaled they’re going to be appealing this, pled for people to support her defense fund because it will be an expensive case ahead, I’m sure, trying to get this overturned, this conviction overturned. But as of today… There is accountability for this judge. The the sentencing date has not been set yet, but this could face up to five years. And I think it’s such a stark contrast. And I want to show another clip from our film. This one is about pro-life speech, because what we’re seeing is that for so long, people just going forward and exercising their constitutional rights were demonized, were arrested. The government was trying to silence them. And meanwhile, you see people celebrating lawlessness like this judge had, that she had many supporters. And that’s why the U.S. attorney even had to say, hey, let’s not get out of hand. Let’s keep this peaceful. But let’s go ahead and roll this about pro-life speech, just as a contrast here.
SPEAKER 19 :
Imagine free speech. I think most of us imagine people on the street, picket signs, megaphones.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is your baby girl or your baby boy. This is not a clump of cells. This is not a parasite. This is your baby.
SPEAKER 04 :
When God tells you what to do, you cannot hesitate. I’m a cyborg preacher and evangelist outside the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center. We share the gospel and we offer to minister to women. We have to raise our voice and use our voice to get them to hear us over generally kazoos, whistles, cowbells, music, any sort of musical instrument you can hold with your hand, they probably use. Man, we’re all here for you. Please don’t do this.
SPEAKER 05 :
If you fear going out in public, and saying something. If you fear that based on perception or the reality that government is going to retaliate, then you’re dealing with a First Amendment issue. That itself can be a symptom of other problems, and it can lead to a chilling.
SPEAKER 04 :
The sergeant on duty comes up and said, you’re coming with us. And I’m like, for what? I was confused. And under threat of arrest, I went and followed him because I had no idea what was going on. And then I was eventually cited for disorderly conduct.
SPEAKER 15 :
He said, whether or not you use amplified sound, if you cause annoyance to anybody again, then you’re going to be charged. We’re always a little bit fearful that he or I will be taken to jail.
SPEAKER 17 :
Once again, that is from our new project, The Chilling Effect, the war on free speech. And you can be a part of that. You can stand with these clients. You can stand with these stories. at ACLJ.org slash voice. And if you go there, ACLJ.org slash voice, you can get your name in the credits as a founding producer. Go today. Welcome back to Seculo and happy Friday to all of you watching as well. We are going through a lot today. One, we’re talking about this Wisconsin judge that last night was convicted of a felony of obstructing federal law enforcement that we’re trying to execute a warrant for arrest of an illegal migrant. and she helped usher this individual out of her chambers, out the back of the courthouse, while distracting the federal law enforcement agents in order to allow this individual to flee. The individual was still arrested after a short foot chase by federal agents who kind of understood what this judge was trying to do. They figured it out, and one individual that was a plainclothes immigration officer, thought that all of the agents had left the area and did not necessarily see that he was still there watching. She has now been convicted of a crime by a jury of her peers. And I think it’s a serious wake-up call for individuals in this country that think that their political ideology is above the law. And that’s what a lot of people, whether you see setting fires to police vehicles, blocking roads, that’s not peacefully assembling as the First Amendment allows for. But what is peacefully assembling is what you’ve seen in some of these clips from our new documentary project, The Chilling Effect, The War on Free Speech, whether it be people that are pro-life advocates trying to express their desire to protect the unborn or people trying to express and share the gospel with people in Chicago. They are doing it peacefully. They are exercising their First Amendment right peacefully, and they are doing so within the law, within the Constitution. And you’re seeing municipalities, police forces that are arresting them, charging them with things like disorderly conduct. and we have to fight both a criminal case in these where we try and are successful in getting these cases thrown out but then also we have to do a federal lawsuit and say you have to change these statutes if you think it applies in this way in that clip that we played just before the break of the pro-life couple the the knots from ohio that were in front of an abortion clinic They were told by the police that if you are even causing an annoyance, not even just amplified sound, if you are annoyance, an annoyance, we will come and arrest you for disorderly conduct. Meanwhile, the clinic workers were making bird sounds like a crow, dancing around, using noisemakers to drown out their sound. It is such a subjective enforcement about what’s an annoyance at that point. So we have to stand for the knots. We have to stand for our clients in Chicago. We have to stand for the pregnancy resource centers in Massachusetts where the government is trying to censor them through an ad campaign, trying to say these are fraudulent clinics. We have to do this all over the country and we can’t do it without you standing with these courageous Americans that are just exercising their constitutional rights. under the threat of law enforcement saying, we will arrest you, we will charge you for exercising your constitutional rights. That takes a lot of courage because the chilling effect is just that. When the government comes after you and tries to get you to stop your constitutionally protected activities, it’s so much easier just to say, you know what? I don’t want to be arrested. I’d rather not go to jail. I don’t know if I can afford an attorney to come in and defend me in this. But then they turn to the ACLJ because these individuals have a conviction that this is their calling. And it’s their right. And they’re not wrong. But they come to the ACLJ and they get the best attorneys in the country for free because of you, because you stand with these courageous Americans and you raise your voice too. And right now your donations are doubled at ACLJ.org slash voice when you stand with these courageous Americans. But I want to play some more from this piece because we also go into the censorship we saw from big tech. And this was a big problem. And we reported earlier in the week that at Meta, their censorship regime, once they changed it, their mistakes of censoring speech went down 90%. That’s remarkable. It also shows you we weren’t wrong that they were censoring speech. So let’s go ahead and run this clip to see what we’re up against when we have to fight censorship. Big tech that are trying to censor conservative and Christian speech. Let’s roll that clip.
SPEAKER 05 :
We should be living in the golden age of free expression. And in many respects, we are. Because it’s new technology, it is also relatively easy for speech to be suppressed or otherwise invite and allow some type of intrusion.
SPEAKER 02 :
Social media giant Meta revealing that his company censored some of its content around the COVID-19 pandemic.
SPEAKER 08 :
Mark Zuckerberg sent us a letter. He said, look, Biden administration pressured us to censor. We did it.
SPEAKER 16 :
We’re sorry. Facebook, you could argue, is essentially acting as an arm of the state because they’re suppressing what the government once suppressed.
SPEAKER 08 :
Big government pressuring big tech to limit what Americans could express relative to COVID, relative to the 2020 election. We’re not getting a marketplace of ideas. We’re getting censorship.
SPEAKER 16 :
When they’re censoring things about some of the most important issues that we’ve ever addressed, you know they’re really doing damage.
SPEAKER 18 :
Is the government watching? Is there a chance I could face some kind of negative consequence now or down the road?
SPEAKER 17 :
Once again, that is just a snippet of what we’re working on with that topic. And there’s a lot of topics. There’s a lot of ways that Americans’ free speech is being censored, whether it be from municipalities, whether it be from the Biden administration. Fortunately, that is no longer the case, but there are still places in the government you have to root this out and put protections in so it never happens again. But that issue with Facebook that you saw in that clip where Facebook was doing the bidding of the Biden administration, we worked heavily on that as well, pushing back. And Facebook, whether it be they saw the political wins or they understood what was happening and they realized that we cannot do this anymore, they course corrected. And their enforcement mistakes, because there are things that Facebook has a responsibility to take down, whether it is direct threats against people. There are things that are not protected under the freedom of speech. The old saying, you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. but their mistakes are down 90% after this course correction. But you also remember that the government under the previous administration wasn’t just using big tech to go after individual Americans. They were also trying to silence those within their own government that were trying to call out what was happening. The whistleblowers, we represented at the ACLJ multiple whistleblowers and were successful in getting their security clearance reinstated and getting the government to say we were wrong, which is a very difficult thing to do, by the way. The ACLJ has gone after the government for a long time. In very few times do you fully get a we were wrong. But we do. whether it be with the IRS when we pushed back and got a consent decree there, or whether it be with the whistleblowers. So take a look at this clip, and I’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 03 :
Too many in the FBI aren’t willing to sacrifice for the hard right over the easy wrong. They see what becomes of whistleblowers, how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearances and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy.
SPEAKER 08 :
Mr. O’Boyle gave us information relative to the memorandum put together in the Justice Department on parents showing up at school board meetings and this idea that somehow they were extremists or a threat.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m angry that I have to be here to testify about the weaponization of the FBI and DOJ against those institutions and individuals that are supposed to protect the American people.
SPEAKER 08 :
The way they always do it at the FBI is they go after your security clearance, which is something you have to have as an agent.
SPEAKER 03 :
The FBI will crush you if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing that are wrong.
SPEAKER 18 :
It changes what you’re going to say and it sort of gets in your head.
SPEAKER 08 :
Whistleblower protection. He’s allowed to come forward under the law and tell us things that he believes that are happening that aren’t supposed to.
SPEAKER 18 :
Is the government watching? Is there a chance I could face some kind of negative consequence now or down the road?
SPEAKER 17 :
Once again, that is from The Chilling Effect, The War on Free Speech, the new project that ACLJ Films is working on and doing a fantastic job. Many of those individuals that are working on it are also working on the show right now. Our team is very talented and very busy. And you can join with us in supporting this work, in supporting of getting this content out. by going to aclj.org slash voice and raise your voice to be a part of this. This is the last day also to get your name in the credits as a founding producer of this project. And you do that by going to aclj.org slash voice. When you donate today and throughout this month, your donation is doubled by that group of donors that matches during this special time of the year. So double the impact of your voice today at ACLJ.org slash voice. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Final segment of the broadcast today. I’m going to go ahead and go to a phone call. Aaron is calling from California on line one. Aaron, you’re watching on YouTube and you are now on Sekulow. Welcome to the broadcast.
SPEAKER 21 :
Thank you. The felony conviction of Judge Dugan is certainly a step in the right direction to hold taxpayer-funded public officials abusing lawful authority under color of law accountable to the law. And I fully support prosecution of public officials who willfully disregard existing law. So thank you for your platform. Thank you for all that you all are doing.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you, Aaron. And I agree that, that we say in this country, no one is above the law and a judge is supposed to be, uh, impartial to the law that they are supposed to call balls and strikes. Uh, What we saw here was an abuse of power. It was a violation of law, clearly. And I think even though the U.S. attorney did the right thing in trying to say, like, let’s not make this a moment where there are protests in the street and violence breaks out because of this now celebrity judge case for the left who did what they think is the right thing by violating the law or… Those on the right who are just so fed up with seeing rogue judges in this country, he did the right thing. And we’ll play that bite actually for everyone. But to your point as well, we do have to hold bad actors accountable. And what do we see on this broadcast almost every day when we talk about Jack Smith or the deep state? or what Adam Schiff did, or the way that those in government fabricated the entire Russia hoax. We say we want accountability, but we don’t see a ton of accountability, whether statute of limitations gets involved, or whether rogue judges get involved. There’s a lot there. So when you finally see… Someone went to trial and was able to get a conviction for this abuse of power. It is a good thing for the country. It is good when the judicial system works. Let’s go ahead and roll, though, that bite from the U.S. attorney.
SPEAKER 07 :
We all need to keep this case in proper perspective, and I hope that all viewers, readers, listeners understand We’ll pay attention to this. Some have sought to make this about a larger political battle. While this case is serious for all involved, it is ultimately about a single day, a single bad day in a public courthouse. The defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some greater cause. It was a criminal case like many that make their way through this courthouse every day, and we all must accept the verdict peacefully.
SPEAKER 17 :
So we discussed that, but also we are now joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs here at ACLJ. It’s a busy time here at the end of the year, Secretary Pompeo, but there are two pieces that you’ve written, one at ACLJ.org and one at Fox News, that I think people should read. And the one ACLJ.org, we must stand firm against terrorism at the home and around the world. And I think it works in tandem with the piece you wrote for Fox News. The Islamic Republic is on the ropes. Time for Trump and Iranians to finish the job. We haven’t heard about Iran a lot of late because they were kind of put in their place. We saw the effective military groupings. quick campaign by the U.S. and by Israel. But as it is quiet, you also say that their regime is on the ropes. I wanted you to speak into that, what you mean by that and what it means to actually finish the job to liberate the great Persian people from the scourge of the Islamic Republic that they’ve had to live under.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it’s great to be with you again today. Look, the Iranian people deserve better than the theocracy, the kleptocracy that rules them and has ruled them since 1979. What happened in 2025 with the Israel strikes, with the crushing of Hamas in Hezbollah, there are two terror arms that surround Israel, and then the strikes inside of Iran itself. And by the way, the fact they were proved so feckless when they fired missiles into Israel, they were nearly all stopped, demonstrating they can’t even take on the nation of Israel. This gives us an enormous opportunity to put even more pressure, even more sanctions, continue this fight, because make no mistake about it, the Iranian regime is currently configured, will continue to try to kill Americans, to kill Europeans, to kill Israelis. They’re not going to change their stripes. Hamas isn’t going to lay down its weapons voluntarily. This will take continued deterrence, continued vigilance. And we ought to continue to do that until we get to something that looks like real victory. And we are closer than we have been in an awfully long time. The strikes President Trump took into Iran decimated their nuclear program. There’s no doubt about that. But we ought not forget that ISIS and other variants of radical Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, the ISIS folks killed a couple of Americans in Syria just a few weeks back. We should never forget that these folks are deeply extremist, radical ideologists, and it is buried deep in their DNA to come after those of us who are Christians or Jews or don’t subscribe to their Sharia mindset. We need to get this right. When we do, we’ll all be safer and more prosperous in the new year.
SPEAKER 17 :
So I encourage everyone to read both those pieces at ACLJ.org as well as Fox News. But I did want to pivot a tiny bit here because we are seeing, you said, the increased sanctions on Iran. This is an opportunity for things like that. We are seeing what is happening with Venezuela, where the sanctions that have been in place on these cargo ships, these oil tankers, are now being enforced by the president of the United States, whether it be the seizure that we talked about last week and now the blockade on oil. And that is a pipeline and a lifeline for the Iranian regime as well as the Venezuelans. But something Jordan and I talked about earlier this week that we got callers about were they were surprised hearing about how deeply rooted China is in the Caribbean. and Central America, Latin America, and through that Belt and Road Initiative that we’ve heard about with Africa that you push back against as Secretary of State, but not realizing how close that initiative is to the United States and how all of this plays into that as well in pushing back against China in our own backyard.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s a really good point. Now, the Chinese are deeply embedded in Venezuela. They have two things. One, they get to cause trouble for the United States from a close platform. And second, they get cheap crude oil so they can power their economy and compete with America with low cost oil that comes out of Venezuela. Neither of those are in America’s interest to allow to continue to happen. But your point is even broader. The Chinese government has worked in Mexico. So right along our southern border, we’ve seen Chinese espionage agents come across that porous border. So there’s an immigration piece to this, too, that is deeply, deeply risky for the United States. I am so glad that President Trump is putting economic pressure on Maduro. That regime is fragile. If we continue to deny them oil revenue, it won’t take long. Think several weeks, not even several months. If we do this full on, the roughly million barrel a day ships that are moving out of there will change fundamentally the economics for Maduro and give the Venezuelan people a fair shot at toppling the regime in a way that will lead to a really good outcome for them and a much more safer, secure United States of America.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you so much for joining us today. I think these are two very important issues and we’ll probably dig into more in coming broadcast. But once again, all of these things play together where we talk about the strength of the United States, whether it be ensuring that our laws are faithfully executed, whether it be the national security of the United States, all of these things are important. And we bring that to you here on Seculo, but we also need your help. Raise Your Voice with us. Today is the final day of Raise Your Voice Week, something that we’ve spent an entire week dedicated to because it is core to what we do here at the ACLJ. And today your donation is doubled. Go to aclj.org slash voice to have that donation doubled and to get your name in the credits as a founding producer of our groundbreaking new docuseries, The Chilling Effect, The War on Free Speech. We are in production on it. You’ve seen clips this entire week. You can be a part of that. Go to aclj.org slash voice. We’ll talk to you on Monday.
