Hello, this is Michael Moss.

Heather Crox Richardson is traveling today, and her travel arrangements did not allow her time

to read today's letter, so I will be reading it in her place.

April 25, 2025. Today's major stories must be seen in the context of President Donald Trump's

dramatic losses in court and his plummeting poll numbers. Yesterday, Trump told the Department

of Justice to investigate Act Blue, the platform that handles the fundraising for almost all Democratic candidates

and the issues Democrats support. This targeting of democratic infrastructure would hobble the Democrats.

It also plays to Trump's base, which insists, without evidence, that Act Blue accepts straw and

foreign donations, an accusation Trump repeated

in his order about the investigation. This morning, FBI director Cash Patel posted on social

media, just now the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Duggan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction after

evidence of Judge Duggan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week. Patel quickly deleted

the post, but the story had already gotten attention. FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Duggan at the

courthouse this morning in what, as Josh Kovanski of Talking Points memo notes, appeared to be an

attempt to draw attention and to illustrate that judges must cooperate with the Trump administration's

mass deportation campaign,

or else face overbearing actions from federal law enforcement.

The story appears to be that on April 18th, while Duggan was about to hear a pretrial conference

in the case of an undocumented immigrant, charged with misdemeanor battery,

immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, agents arrived to arrest the person.

They had an administrative warrant rather than a judicial warrant, and Judge Duggan asked them

to produce a judicial warrant. When courtroom discussions about the man's case ended, Judge Duggan asked them to produce a judicial warrant. When courtroom discussions about the

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