By Nate Raymond and Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said it filed a misconduct complaint against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a prominent judge in Washington, D.C., who has drawn President Donald Trump’s ire.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the complaint in a post on X days after Boasberg said he might initiate disciplinary proceedings against Justice Department lawyers for their conduct in a lawsuit brought by Venezuelans challenging their removal to a Salvadoran prison in March.
The judge in April concluded the Trump administration appeared to have acted “in bad faith” when it hurriedly assembled three deportation flights on March 15 at the same time that he was conducting emergency court proceedings to assess the legality of the effort.
The Justice Department’s complaint focused on comments the conservative media outlet The Federalist this month reported that Boasberg made during a meeting of the judiciary’s top policymaking body in March that was attended by Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
The Justice Department, in a complaint reviewed by Reuters, said that during the meeting, Boasberg expressed his concern to Roberts and others that the Trump administration would disregard court rulings and trigger “a constitutional crisis.”
The Justice Department argued those comments eroded public confidence in judicial neutrality and ran afoul of the judicial code of conduct. It accused him of then acting on his belief by issuing an order that blocked the president from using wartime powers to deport Venezuelan migrants.
Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle addressed the complaint to Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mizelle asked the federal appeals court to refer the complaint to a special investigative committee. He also requested that the deportations lawsuit be reassigned to a different judge.
Boasberg’s chambers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Boasberg, a former federal prosecutor, was first appointed to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, who nominated him to the D.C. Superior Court in 2002. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2011 appinted him to a U.S. District Court judgeship.
Boasberg has been hearing a lawsuit brought on behalf of alleged Venezuelan gang members removed from the U.S. under the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act.
In an April order, Boasberg said there was “probable cause” to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his order to turn deportation flights around.
The D.C. Circuit halted Boasberg’s contempt finding days later, but has yet to rule on whether it should be reversed.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond, Jan Wolfe, Christian Martinez and Kanishka Singh)
