WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed a complaint Monday alleging misconduct by a federal judge overseeing several cases involving the Trump administration, including a challenge to the legality of deportation flights to El Salvador in March.
The complaint against James Boasberg, the chief U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., which was filed by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, alleges that Boasberg made improper comments during a judicial conference in March.
“While there,” Mizelle wrote, “Judge Boasberg attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice 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.'”
NBC News hasn’t verified the remarks, which Mizelle said Boasberg made on March 11. The conference wasn’t open to the public.
“Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis,” Mizelle added in his five-page letter to Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals in Washington.
Mizelle went on to say in the complaint that the Trump administration has complied with “all” court orders and that Boasberg didn’t identify any violations of court orders to justify what Mizelle called “his unprecedented predictions.”
Boasberg didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
Bondi wrote on X, “Today at my direction, @TheJusticeDept filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration.”
“These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that,” she added.
Boasberg is assigned to several notable cases involving the Trump administration, none more high-profile than the Alien Enemies Act case, which was filed in mid-March when three deportation flights took off from the United States en route to El Salvador. During an emergency hearing at the time, Boasberg ordered that any planes that were midair and bound for El Salvador return to the United States after Trump’s executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act for deportations was made public.
He later found cause to initiate contempt proceedings to determine whether the Trump administration was in willful violation of court orders. An appeals court has paused the process, however.
“Having assumed President Trump would defy court orders, Judge Boasberg issued a [temporary restraining order] and threatened sanctions—all on a false premise,” the complaint says, noting that Boasberg spoke at the conference days before he ruled from the bench in the deportations case. “Such conduct violates litigants’ trust in an impartial judiciary and falls below the standards that safeguard the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in that integrity.”
Mizelle asked Srinivasan to refer the matter to a special investigative committee to determine whether Boasberg’s conduct constituted “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts.”
He also asked that Boasberg’s Alien Enemies Act case be reassigned to another judge while the investigation proceeds and that disciplinary action be imposed, including a public reprimand and referral to the Judicial Conference for consideration of impeachment‑related recommendations, if the committee finds willful misconduct.
Zoë Richards contributed.
