Attorney General Pam Bondi is going after a federal judge who spoke out against President Donald Trump.
Bondi announced Monday that she has lodged a misconduct complaint against District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg, citing “improper public comments” he made about Trump and the administration.
“These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that,” Bondi wrote in an X post. The Justice Department’s complaint demands an investigation into Boasberg and calls for his removal from the long-running legal battle over Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, according to The Hill.
Boasberg, an Obama appointee, first drew Trump’s ire in March, when he condemned the Trump administration for flying migrants to El Salvador despite his ruling that their deportations under the Alien Enemies Act should be temporarily barred and the planes turned around.
Bondi’s complaint focuses on remarks Boasberg allegedly made a few days before he issued the order halting the flights to El Salvador at a meeting of the Judicial Conference—the federal judiciary’s policymaking arm—which Supreme Court Justice John Roberts attended.
The Federalist, a conservative outlet, reported that Boasberg expressed concerns at the meeting that “the administration would disregard rulings of federal courts, resulting in a constitutional crisis.”
Bondi’s complaint quotes these “inappropriate” comments, alleging that they were an attempt by Boasberg to “improperly influence [Supreme Court] Chief Justice Roberts and roughly two dozen other federal judges.”
The complaint is now before Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who can dismiss the complaint, conclude that adequate corrective action has occurred, or appoint a committee to pursue further sanctions, according to The Hill.
The DOJ is asking Srinivasan to refer the complaint to a special investigative committee, and to take him off the case challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.
As the legal fight over the deportation flights to El Salvador escalated, Boaberg accused the administration of acting in “bad faith” and said there was “probable cause” to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt for failing to heed his order to turn the planes back. A federal appeals court has temporarily prevented Boasberg from moving ahead with his contempt proceedings, The Hill reported.
Meanwhile, Trump lashed out at Boasberg, labeling him an “troublemaker and agitator” and calling for his impeachment. That prompted a rare rebuke from Roberts, who said impeachment was “not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
