What to know about Judge Boasberg, the Trump foe at center of DOJ complaint
The Justice Department on Monday accused U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of misconduct, escalating the Trump administration’s long-running feud against federal judges who have blocked or paused some of the president’s most sweeping policy priorities.
The complaint, reviewed by Fox News Digital, centers on remarks Boasberg allegedly made during a March 11 meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States — the national policymaking body for the federal courts, which meets twice per year and is headed up by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
During that meeting, the complaint says, Boasberg “attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice Roberts” and the roughly two dozen other federal judges at the conference by suggesting that the Trump administration could “disregard rulings of federal courts,” and trigger “a constitutional crisis.”
The complaint was sent at the direction of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and signed by her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle.
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Fox News Digital could not independently verify Boasberg’s reported remarks at the March 11 meeting, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials have argued the reported remarks were an attempt to improperly prejudice or influence Roberts and said they “undermined the integrity and impartiality of the federal judiciary.”
The complaint asked, not for the first time, that Boasberg be removed from presiding over J.G.G. v. Trump, a lawsuit filed in March by lawyers for the ACLU and others on behalf of the hundreds of immigrants who were summarily deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison under the auspices of a wartime immigration law.
The complaint — and its request to remove Boasberg from the most consequential immigration case of President Donald Trump’s second term — is certain to test the already fraught relationship between the administration and the courts.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January, senior administration officials have excoriated dozens of so-called “activist” judges who have blocked or paused some of Trump’s sweeping executive orders from taking force.
Notably, the pro-Trump legal group founded by White House aide Stephen Miller attempted to sue Roberts earlier this year for his role overseeing the U.S. Judicial Conference, arguing in a long-shot legal bid that the group’s actions went beyond the scope of what they allege are the “core functions” of the judiciary.
Boasberg, in particular, has emerged as one of Trump’s biggest public foes. On March 15, several days after he allegedly made the remarks included in the DOJ complaint, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order seeking to block Trump’s use of a 1798 wartime-era immigration law, the Alien Enemies Act, to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador.
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Boasberg ordered all planes bound for El Salvador to be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil, which did not happen, and later, ordered a new investigation to determine whether the Trump administration had complied with his orders. In April, he ruled that the court had grounds to move on possible contempt proceedings, though that ruling was stayed by a higher appeals court, which has yet to consider the matter.
His March 15 order touched off a complex legal saga that ultimately spawned dozens of deportation-related court challenges across the country — though the one brought before Boasberg was the very first — and later prompted the Supreme Court to rule, on two separate occasions, that the hurried removals had violated migrants’ due process protections under the U.S. Constitution.
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However, it also placed Boasberg squarely in the crosshairs of Trump officials — including the president — as the administration moved to unleash a blitz of executive orders and target judges who tried to block them.
Their attacks have centered closely on the behavior of several judges — but no one more so than Boasberg, an Obama appointee who was originally tapped by then-President George W. Bush in 2002 to be an associate judge of the District of Columbia Superior Court.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly used her podium this year to rail against “radical left-wing judges,” accusing them of overstepping their authority and undermining presidential powers.
Trump suggested earlier this year that Boasberg could be impeached for his actions, describing the judge as a “troublemaker and agitator”— and prompting a rare public rebuke from Justice Roberts.
For some, the complaint seems to be well-timed: Boasberg ordered the Justice Department and the ACLU to court for a status hearing last week to determine the status of the 252 CECOT plaintiffs who were deported to Venezuela from El Salvador as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.
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Boasberg ended the hearing by ordering the administration and the ACLU lawyers to submit a joint status update to the court on Thursday, Aug. 7, and to continue to do so every two weeks thereafter, as he weighs what options the court has to order relief.
When asked at a status hearing in court last week whether the Justice Department would comply with the court’s orders, DOJ lawyer Tiberius Davis said they would, “if it was a lawful order.”
Davis added that DOJ would likely seek an appeal from a higher court.
Notably, it’s not the first time the Trump administration has tried to have Boasberg removed from overseeing the case.
The Justice Department in March asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Boasberg from presiding over the Alien Enemies Act case and have it reassigned to another federal judge. The appeals court never took action in response to the request.
The White House has repeatedly argued that lower court judges like Boasberg should not have the power to block what it calls the president’s lawful agenda — though the judges say Trump’s actions violate the law.
Still, the first six months of Trump’s second term have been marked by repeated court clashes, as the administration pushes ahead with its agenda and targets those standing in its way.
That sentiment was echoed by former acting ICE Director and current border czar Tom Homan. ‘I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks,” he said earlier this year in an interview. “We’re coming. Another fight. Every day.”
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