Misconduct complaint dismissed against judge who handled El Salvador prison deportation case
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court judge dismissed a Justice Department misconduct complaint against a judge who clashed with the President Donald Trump management is over Deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Complaint against U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg He was dismissed on Dec. 19 by Jeffrey S. Sutton, chief judge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the order only emerged this weekend.
The complaint stemmed from comments by Boasberg, the chief judge of the district court in the nation’s capital, who allegedly told Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges at a judicial conference in March 2025 that the administration would ignore federal court orders, sparking a constitutional crisis. The meeting took place days before Boasberg issued an order blocking Trump’s deportation flights. by appealing to wartime authorities From a law from the 18th century.
In the dismissal order, Sutton said the Justice Department provided no docket attachments that would provide evidence of what Boasberg said or the context of the alleged statement in the closed-door conference.
“Repetition of plain allegations without attribution to a source does not substantiate them. And repetition of uncorroborated statements is rarely the basis for a valid misconduct complaint,” said Sutton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to the appellate court division that covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Boasberg court did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Even if Boasberg had made the comments, Sutton said it would not have been “too far removed” from the issues discussed at the meeting and would not have violated ethics rules. Sutton noted that Roberts’ 2024 year-end report expressed general concerns about threats to judicial independence, security concerns for judges and respect for court decisions throughout the country’s history.
The malpractice complaint was presented to Judge Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but Srinivasan asked Roberts to transfer it to another appellate court division because he was still considering appeals in the deportation case, according to the dismissal order. Roberts was said to have transferred him to the 6th Circuit.
