The U.S. Department of Justice, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg on Monday “for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration,” Bondi said on X.
The White House’s complaint was filed by Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, and accuses Boasberg of “attempt(ing) to improperly influence Chief Justice 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,’” according to Fox News, who claimed to have reviewed the complaint.
It apparently also mentioned Boasberg’s actions in March, when he ordered the Trump administration to turn around a flight filled with alleged Venezuelan gang members who were being deported.
The Trump administration removed the men, citing the Alien Enemies Act as the basis for their actions, but when the administration did not follow Boasberg’s order, he initiated contempt proceedings, which an appeals court later halted.
The Supreme Court also overturned the deportation flight orders.
During that time in March, Trump called for the judge’s impeachment and was met with a statement by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, who shut down the notion.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said in March.
Boasberg was first appointed to the D.C. Superior Court bench by former President George W. Bush in 2002, but former President Barack Obama appointed him to a U.S. District Court judgeship in 2011.
The complaint was sent to Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, for review.
The DOJ is requesting Srinivasan to direct the complaint to a “special investigative committee as an inquiry is essential to determine whether Judge Boasberg’s conduct constitutes ‘conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts,’” per Fox News.
It also requests that Boasberg be removed from the case involving the deportation of the Venezuelan migrants.