Donald Trump has escalated his twin wars with the media and the judiciary, with Attorney General Todd Blanch filing a misconduct complaint against a group of judges who spoke to The New York Times about the administration’s immigration crackdown.
In an extraordinary move, Trump’s top justice official claimed that the federal judges from Minnesota’s district court bench had pandered to the press and violated judicial ethics by discussing pending cases with the newspaper.
He also demanded the judges recuse themselves from cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, declaring their conduct had “undermined confidence in an impartial judiciary.”
The complaint stems from a September 17 Times report about Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota earlier this year.
The surge, overseen by then Homeland Security Secretary Kristie Noem and her Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, was the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history, deploying up to 4,000 federal ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents, and culminating in the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens: Renee Goode and Alex Pretti.
Seven members of Minnesota’s federal bench spoke with the Times to raise their concerns, including former chief judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee and former clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
He told the Times that the government’s conduct had created a “grave threat to the rule of law,” noting that the operation had sent more than 1,000 habeas corpus petitions flooding into the courts.
Schiltz had also ruled in January that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had violated nearly 100 court orders during the crackdown, writing that “ICE is not a law unto itself.”
Speaking at a press conference alongside Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Blanche argued that the judges crossed an ethical line by publicly discussing matters still before them.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter went even further in a statement, accusing the judges of “pandering to the press.”
“Seven federal judges in the District of Minnesota talked to the New York Times about cases, some of which are ongoing, in a manner that the Department of Justice views as a clear violation of their ethical duties,” Blanche said.
“Their conduct has undermined public confidence in an impartial judiciary in Minnesota.”
The complaint was filed against Schiltz, Judge John R. Tunheim, and several “anonymous District Judges”.
But it also lands in a much bigger battle over freedom of the press, which escalated last week when Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from accessing the White House because he didn’t like their coverage.
The president was ultimately humiliated when another judge, Timothy Kelly, blocked the ban, finding that the journalists were likely to succeed in arguing that the White House had violated their constitutional right to due process.
Meanwhile, Blanche’s own ethics have also come under question, after the former Trump attorney appeared on stage this month at a rally with the president in North Carolina, spoke at the GOP midterm convention, and praised the president during a press briefing in the White House rose garden.
Asked about this by a reporter on Wednesday, he replied: “I don’t agree with that. We are allowed to do things in our individual capacity.”
