DOJ Files Misconduct Complaint Against Judge That Trump Repeatedly Targeted
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The Department of Justice on Monday filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who has irked President Donald Trump with his rulings.
In March, Boasberg, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the Trump administration to turn around planes carrying migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador so that the migrants could return to the U.S. The administration refused, and the migrants, who were not afforded due process by either the governments of the U.S. or El Salvador, were jailed in the country’s notorious CECOT prison.
In April, Boasberg found probable cause for Trump administration officials to be held in contempt.
The DOJ is requesting that Boasberg be investigated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and be removed from the deportation case.
“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump said of Boasberg in March. Central to the administration’s justification for the due process-free deportation flights was the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which the president dubiously invoked by alleging that the migrants belonged to a gang controlled by Venezuela’s government. Trump later claimed that he was not the person who invoked the act, and that “other people handled it.”
Boasberg later charged that the administration had acted in “bad faith.”
Trump continued railing against Boasberg, as did the president’s allies such as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who pledged to hold congressional hearings into Boasberg.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the misconduct complaint against Boasberg on Monday.
The complaint cites the March 11 session of the Judicial Conference of the United States, where the DOJ says Boasberg “attempted to improperly influence” Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges present. Boasberg, the DOJ claims, said the Trump administration would “disregard rulings of federal courts” and trigger “a constitutional crisis.”
“Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis — the Trump administration has always complied with all court orders,” the DOJ stated.
