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.
