Washington – The Department of Justice filed a complaint on Monday claiming misconduct by a federal judge who supervises several cases that involve the Trump administration, including a challenge to the legality of deportation flights to El Salvador in March.
The complaint against James Boasberg, the former district judge of the United States in Washington, DC, which was presented by the chief of cabinet of the attorney general Pam Bondi, Chad Mizelle, alleges that Boasberg made inappropriate comments during a judicial conference in March.
“As long as he was there,” Mizelle wrote, “Judge Boasberg tried to incorrectly influence the President of Justice Roberts and approximately two dozen federal judges when deviating from traditional issues to express his belief that Trump’s administration” would ignore the decisions of federal courts “and triggered” a constitutional crisis. “
NBC News has not verified the comments, which Mizelle said that Boasberg made on March 11. The conference was not open to the public.
“Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had any base, they were still worse because Judge Boasberg had no base,” Mizelle added in his five -page letter to the main judge Sri Srinivasan of the United States circuit of the Court of Appeals in Washington.
Mizelle continued to say in the complaint that the Trump administration has complied with “all” judicial orders and that Boasberg did not identify any violation of judicial orders to justify what Mizelle called “his unprecedented predictions.”
Boasberg did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Monday night.
Bondi wrote in X: “Today in my direction, @thejustateept filed a complaint of misconduct against the main judge of the United States District Court, James Boasberg, for making inappropriate public comments about President Trump and his administration.”
“These comments have undermined the integrity of the Judiciary, and we will not defend that,” he added.
Boasberg is assigned to several notable cases that involve the Trump administration, none more high profile than the case of the Alien Enemies Law, which was presented in mid -March when three deportation flights took off from the United States on their way to El Salvador. During an emergency audience at that time, Boasberg ordered that any plane that was in the air and bound for El Salvador to return to the United States after Trump’s executive order invoked the alien enemies law for deportations.
Later he found a cause to initiate contempt procedures to determine if the Trump administration was in intentional violation of judicial orders. However, an appeal court has stopped the process.
“After having assumed that President Trump would challenge the judicial orders, Judge Boasberg issued a [temporary restraining order] And threatened sanctions, all with a false premise, “says the complaint, noting that Boasberg spoke at the conference days before he governed from the bank in the case of deportations.” Such behavior violates the confidence of the litigants in an impartial judiciary and falls below the standards that safeguard the integrity of judicial and public trust in that integrity. “
Mizelle asked Srinivas to send the matter to a special investigation committee to determine whether Boasberg’s conduct constituted “harmful conduct to the effective and expeditious administration of the courts of the courts.”
He also requested that the case of the Basberg Alien enemies Law will be reassigned to another judge while the investigation continues and that a disciplinary action is imposed, including a public reprimand and derivation to the judicial conference for their consideration of recommendations related to the lawyer, if the committee finds intentional misconduct.
Zoë Richards contributed.
