This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published by Balls and Strikes. 

On Monday, the Department of Justice filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for the offense of telling colleagues that some judges worried the Trump administration would violate court orders. According to the DOJ, his private comments “eroded public confidence in the judiciary.”

The complaint comes on the heels of The Federalist reporting on a memorandum recapping the March 2025 meeting of the Judicial Conference, the national policymaking body for federal courts. According to The Federalist, the memo states that at this judges-only event, Boasberg “raised his colleagues’ concerns that the Administration would disregard rulings of federal courts leading to a constitutional crisis.” The Federalist contended that these comments revealed an inexcusable “anti-Trump bias” and “clear disregard for the presumption of regularity—a presumption that requires a court to presume public officials properly discharged their official duties.” 

The DOJ then said the same. “Federal courts must begin from a presumption of regularity—the settled doctrine that executive officials have properly discharged their official duties absent clear evidence otherwise,” reads the complaint, signed by Chad Mizelle, who is the chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “By........

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