James Boasberg, the far-left federal judge who has been attempting to block President Donald Trump from exercising his constitutional authority over immigration, is again the target of GOP efforts to boot him from the bench.
Boasberg, chief of the district court in Washington, D.C., faces new impeachment articles in the House of Representatives. As well, GOP senators have written to the top jurist on the federal court of appeals to demand that Boasberg be suspended.
The reason: Boasberg facilitated an illegal spy operation on eight GOP U.S. Senators and issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration for which he had no authority.
If judicial activism had an entry in Webster’s, Boasberg’s photo would illustrate it.
House Impeachment Bill
The GOP is waging a two-front war on Boasberg.
For the second time, Representative Brandon Gill of Texas has filed articles of impeachment against him. The first time around, in March, Gill filed due to Boasberg’s officious meddling in the Trump administration’s using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan Tren de Aragua terror gang members. The U.S. Supreme Court smacked Boasberg down.
Now, Gill wants him impeached for authorizing special counsel Jack Smith’s spy operation against eight GOP senators. The bill says Boasberg “authorized the issuance of frivolous nondisclosure orders.”
The orders were a blatant attack, for instance, on Senator Ted Cruz of Texas:
Boasberg signed an order prohibiting AT&T from informing Senator Cruz of his subpoena for at least one year. Chief Judge Boasberg expressed that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation.” Chief Judge Boasberg had no clear reasonable basis to make this finding about Senator Cruz, which accused him of being willing to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses in violation of both the law and Senator Cruz’s ethical obligation as a member of the Bar.
That illegal espionage operation ended in the firing of FBI agents in cahoots with Smith.
“It is unclear if Judge Boasberg facilitated the frivolous subpoenas issued by Special Counsel John L. [Jack] Smith which covered conservative nonprofit organizations, including but not limited to Conservative Partnership Institute, America First Policy Institute, Women for America First, and Center for Renewing America,” the impeachment bill continues:
Many of these same organizations had been outspoken in opposition to various radical Biden Administration policies. It appears that these subpoenas were intended to silence political speech.
As well, the impeachment motion says, Boasberg facilitated spying on patriotic Americans.
Schmitt Letter
The second prong of the GOP effort is a letter signed by six senators, led by Eric Schmitt of Missouri.
That letter to Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., notes Boasberg’s “frivolous nondisclosure orders” that resulted in illegal spying on the senators. As well, the letter says, Boasberg stuck his snout into the Alien Enemies Act dispute.
Schmitt’s letter points to the Justice Department’s complaint against Boasberg in July. That complaint, as The New American reported, accused Boasberg of misconduct.
At a session of the U.S. Judicial Conference, “which exists to discuss administrative matters like budgets, security, and facilities,” the complaint alleges, Boasberg “attempted to improperly influence [U.S. Supreme Court] 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.’”
Boasberg offered no evidence that the administration would “disregard” rulings and, the complaint averred, it hasn’t.
Still, Boasberg acted on that “preconceived belief.”
“First, although he lacked authority to do so, he issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Government from removing violent Tren de Aragua terrorists, which the Supreme Court summarily vacated,” the complaint continues:
Throughout the proceedings, Judge Boasberg rushed the government through complex litigation, sometimes giving the Trump Administration less than 48 hours to respond and threatening criminal-contempt proceedings and the appointment of an outside prosecutor against senior Trump Administration officials for failing to comply with an order that had already been vacated.
Code of Conduct Violated
Taken together, Judge Boasberg’s words and deeds violate the Canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.
The high court ruled that he “lacked authority to issue [the restraining order] and underscor[ed] that the rush to issue it sacrificed basic legal predicates,” the complaint observed:
Undeterred by the Supreme Court’s reversal, Judge Boasberg still proceeded to issue a 46-page show-cause opinion threatening criminal contempt and the appointment of an outside prosecutor. Since then, the D.C. Circuit has also recognized Judge Boasberg’s errors, staying his decisions twice.
Citing that complaint, Schmitt and his co-signers reminded Srinivasan, an Indian immigrant, that federal law requires him to “‘expeditiously’ review this complaint and determine whether to take ‘appropriate corrective action’ or dispense with the case ‘by written order stating his … reasons.’”
The signers wrote that since Srinivasan has not acted on the complaint, they have concluded that he has empaneled the special committee required by law to probe the allegations.
Schmitt and the other co-signers want Boasberg suspended until impeachment proceedings are over.
