GOP senator calls on House to impeach Boasberg after contempt hearings halted

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is calling on House Republicans to impeach James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, after a federal appeals court halted Boasberg’s contempt investigation into Trump administration officials.

Accusing Boasberg of judicial “abuse,” Schmitt, an outspoken proponent of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies, is urging House Republicans to impeach Boasberg, even though there’s little chance any effort to remove him from the bench would get the 67 votes needed in the Senate.

Schmitt vented his outrage over Boasberg’s efforts to find Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in criminal contempt for flouting his order to stop deportation flights to El Salvador.

“The D.C. Circuit ruled Boasberg’s contempt crusade against Trump officials is an ‘improper investigation’ and ‘clear abuse of discretion.’ He tried to imprison Trump officials for deporting Venezuelan gang members. I’m calling on the House: Impeach Rogue Judge Boasberg,” Schmitt posted on X, the social media platform.

Schmitt called for Boasberg’s removal after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision Tuesday quashed Boasberg’s investigation into whether Trump administration officials violated his order not to deport immigrants to El Salvador without giving them due process to challenge their removal orders.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused Boasberg of targeting Justice Department attorneys.

“Today’s decision by the DC Circuit should finally end Judge Boasberg’s year-long campaign against the hardworking department attorneys doing their jobs fighting illegal immigration,” Blanche said in a statement responding to the court’s decision.

The federal appeals court ruled Boasberg was conducting an “improper investigation” that Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, warned could become “an open-ended, freewheeling inquiry into executive branch decision-making on matters of national security” that could have broad ramifications for military and diplomatic initiatives.

But the decision was accompanied by a fiery dissent from Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee, who argued that the ruling could undermine judicial authority.

“Contempt of court is a public offense, and the fate of our democratic republic will depend on whether we treat it as such,” Childs wrote. “In the many forms in which it can be committed, contempt degrades the power that the people, through their Constitution and Congress, gave the federal courts.

“Without the contempt power, the rule of law is an illusion, a theory that stands upon shifting sands,” she wrote.

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