An anti-Trump judge who has stymied the president’s agenda with nationwide injunctions is now seeing the tables turned thanks to a newly filed complaint by the U.S. Justice Department.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in the complaint, accuses District Judge James Boasberg of displaying “improper” conduct when he accused President Donald Trump of stoking a “constitutional crisis” by levying personal attacks on judges who imposed nationwide injunctions halting parts of his agenda. Boasberg has been at the center of pausing mass deportation flights.
In response, Trump has referred to Boasberg as a “Radical Left Lunatic Judge” and “troublemaker” in various social media posts.
Bondi’s complaint slams Boasberg for his comment, saying it “undermined” his ability to fairly carry out future hearings on matters related to the administration. She also notes that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sided with Trump when he learned about Boasberg’s private remark.
“Today at my direction, [the Justice Department] filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration,” Bondi wrote Monday on X.
“These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that,” she went on.
Twice each year, the Judicial Conference meets in Washington, D.C., to review standards for the nation’s federal judges to abide by. The group’s last meeting occurred during the week of March 11. Documents from the meeting show that Judge Boasberg was discussed.
“District of the District of Columbia Chief Judge James Boasberg next raised his colleagues’ concerns that the Administration would disregard rulings of federal courts leading to a constitutional crisis,” a copy reads.
“Chief Justice Roberts expressed hope that would not happen and in turn no constitutional crisis would materialize.”
The note also makes clear “his interactions with the President have been civil and respectful, such as the President thanking him at the state of the union address for administering the oath.”
Less than two weeks after news of the memo became public, Bondi took her first action against Boasberg, accusing the judge of harboring an anti-Trump bias that tainted his decision in the mass deportation case.
Boasberg, she wrote at the time, is “highly conflicted” in his estimation of President Trump.
Trump concurred, calling his judicial nemesis “disgraceful” and saying he suffers from “massive Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The initial decision by Boasberg came after the ACLU filed suit on behalf of five Venezuelan nationals set to be deported by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Boasberg disagreed, finding the statute only applies during “declared” conflicts and said that a crisis at the southern border did not qualify, according to the Daily Mail.