MIKE DAVIS: Impeachment time for Trump-hating renegade Judge Boasberg

Obama-appointed judge Jeb Boasberg deserves impeachment calls after releasing Trump assassination threat suspect and blocking deportation operations.

Mike Davis is the founder of the Article III Project.

While Cannon epitomizes the gold standard of the federal judiciary, Obama-appointed D.C. Chief District Judge Jeb Boasberg represents the garbage standard. Throughout the January 6 saga, Boasberg had no problem keeping defendants—even nonviolent ones—locked up before their trials, in part based on social media posts. He let off disgraced former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith with probation after Clinesmith had altered an email to secure a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Boasberg claimed that Clinesmith would receive punishment from the disciplinary authorities (the D.C. Bar) in the form of possible disbarment; yet, Clinesmith kept his license. Then, Boasberg made clear early in the second Trump administration that he was itching for a fight, expressing his baseless concern to Chief Justice John Roberts that President Trump and his subordinates would violate court orders.

This March, Boasberg instigated the fight he had longed for when he illegally ordered planes full of Tren de Aragua terrorists and vicious MS-13 gang members to turn around after they had departed for Honduras and El Salvador. This was an ongoing military operation. The planes would have been in danger trying to fly back over the Gulf of America with minimal fuel. Additionally, there were not the appropriate security resources in place in the United States to deal with the return of hundreds of foreign terrorists and violent gang members, unlike the situation in El Salvador and Honduras where the proper resources were in place. The planes did not turn around, and Boasberg "found" probable cause to hold administration officials in contempt. A D.C. Circuit panel reversed; yet, Boasberg, undaunted by the smackdown he had received, mused at a hearing about disciplinary proceedings against Trump Justice Department lawyers before the jurisdictions in which they hold law licenses.