Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee who serves as chief judge of the D.C. District Court, is facing an ethics complaint for “political bias” against President Donald Trump and his administration.
Boasberg approved nondisclosure orders in 2023 that kept nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress from knowing their cell phone records had been secretly obtained by the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ), documents released by Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley recently revealed.
“Judge Boasberg enabled certain facets of what may be one of the biggest scandals in the history of the country,” the ethics complaint filed by the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) and exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation states. “Weaponizing the DOJ to surveil political opposition not only violates the rights of the subjects of the investigation, but also the American people who were unable to know the facts of the investigation due to the secrecy of it.”
Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the lawmakers’ phone records as part of the “Arctic Frost” investigation, which became his 2020 election case against President Donald Trump. He sought “detailed records for inbound and outbound calls, text messages, direct connect, and voicemail messages” between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021.
While Verizon compiled with Smith’s subpoena, AT&T decided not to after raising questions about their “legal basis.”
Boasberg’s approval of the nondisclosure orders “could be a constitutional violation,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told the DCNF.
“Boasberg should be immediately investigated and, if found to have violated judicial canons, must be disciplined to maintain the integrity and independence of the federal judiciary,” Fitzpatrick said.
Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill filed articles of impeachment against Boasberg on Wednesday. The articles allege he violated a federal law ensuring communications providers for Senate offices “shall not be barred, through operation of any court order or any statutory provision, from notifying the Senate office of any legal process seeking disclosure of Senate data.”
“Chief Judge Boasberg does not appreciate basic statute and contributed to the legal inquiries that violate the law indicating he is unfit to serve as Chief Judge,” the articles state.
Gill previously filed articles of impeachment in March after Boasberg ordered the government to turn around planes carrying alleged gang members to El Salvador. The Department of Justice (DOJ) likewise filed an ethics complaint against Boasberg for “improper” comments he made at the judicial conference in March.
CASA’s complaint also highlights comments Boasberg made in March at The Judicial Conference of the United States, where he expressed concern “that the Administration would disregard rulings of federal courts leading to a constitutional crisis,” according to The Federalist.
“At the time of these statements, President Trump and his administration were already defendants in dozens of federal lawsuits, including some within the District of Columbia,” the complaint states. “To that date, Trump had complied with every order.”
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