The Department of Justice has filed a misconduct complaint against US District Court Judge James Boasberg – marking another formal challenge against a federal judge who has pushed back on the Trump administration’s policies.
The complaint, submitted Monday and obtained by CNN, alleges that Boasberg, the DC judge at the center of cases involving the administration’s use of a colonial-era law to send undocumented immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador, made comments about President Donald Trump at a Judicial Conference meeting in March that “undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
“While there, Judge Boasberg attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice (John) Roberts and roughly two dozen other federal judges by straying from the traditional topics to express his belief that the Trump Administration would ‘disregard rulings of federal courts’ and trigger ‘a constitutional crisis,’” Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said in the complaint.
“Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis,” Mizelle argued, insisting that the Trump administration has complied with court orders.
The complaint alleges that days after making the statements, Boasberg “began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump Administration would not follow court orders,” pointing to the judge’s order restricting the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The Federalist reported on Boasberg’s remarks at the conference earlier this month, citing a memorandum it obtained. In response to the concerns raised by Boasberg at the conference, “Chief Justice Roberts expressed hope that would not happen and in turn no constitutional crisis would materialize,” according to the memorandum.
Bondi said on social media Monday night the complaint came at her direction, arguing that Boasberg’s “comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that.”
CNN has reached out to Boasberg for comment.
The move is yet another escalation in the Trump administration’s conflicts with the judiciary and comes after the Department of Justice filed another misconduct complaint against a DC district court judge earlier this year. In February, the department accused Judge Ana Reyes of misconduct during hearings over Trump’s executive order that called for banning transgender troops from serving in the US military, the Associated Press reported.
The complaint against Boasberg asks the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sri Srinivasan, to refer the complaint to a special investigative committee, reassign Boasberg’s relevant cases to another judge, and “impose appropriate disciplinary action, including a public reprimand and referral to the Judicial Conference for consideration of impeachment-related recommendations, if the committee finds willful misconduct.”
It’s extremely unusual for the Justice Department to complain formally about a judge’s behavior rather than pursue its agenda through the court system directly. It is also unusual for a public debate to erupt around conversations between judges, which rarely come to light, at their private annual events.
Trump’s rhetoric opposing the judiciary has been far more aggressive than during his first term. In March, Trump labeled Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic Judge” and called for his impeachment on social media. The action drew a rare rebuke from Roberts, who made a highly unusual statement shortly after Trump’s posts.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement released by the Supreme Court at the time. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Federal judges hold lifetime appointments, and their impeachment and removal is extremely rare. The House of Representatives has impeached only 15 federal judges since 1803, and eight of those impeachments were followed by convictions in the Senate, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.
Boasberg had a relatively nonpartisan record before facing Trump’s fury, CNN has previously reported. He was appointed to the DC district court by former President Barack Obama and was previously named to DC’s local courts by former President George W. Bush.
Boasberg was known for giving lenient punishments to January 6 rioters. In Trump’s first term, he released FISA court materials that exposed huge problems with the FBI’s probe into connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia’s election meddling. He also paved the way for conservative groups to obtain some of Hillary Clinton’s emails from her private server.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, John Fritze, Marshall Cohen and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.
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