The Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint against Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has been dismissed, according to a newly released ruling.
“By singling out a sitting President who was (and remains) a party to dozens of active cases, Judge Boasberg attempted to transform a routine housekeeping agenda into a forum to persuade … federal judges of his preconceived belief that the Trump Administration would violate court orders,” the complaint stated.
With those remarks, and his handling of a case involving Venezuelan nationals being deported, the judge violated the code of conduct for judges and undermined public confidence in the neutrality of judges, DOJ officials said.
The complaint identified only one source backing up the allegations, labeled attachment A, Sutton wrote in the newly released decision. The complaint did not include the attachment, and when judicial officials contacted the DOJ to ask for it, the department did not supply it.
“In the absence of the attachment, the complaint offers no source for what, if anything, the subject judge said during the Conference, when he said it, whether he said it in response to a question, whether he said it during the Conference or at another meeting, and whether he expressed these concerns as his own or as those of other judges,” Sutton said.
“Later in the complaint, to be sure, the Department refers to a Fox News clip discussing the same allegation. But it does not identify any source, contain any specifics, or answer any of the above questions. A recycling of unadorned allegations with no reference to a source does not corroborate them. And a repetition of uncorroborated statements rarely supplies a basis for a valid misconduct complaint.”
Sutton also said that even if Boasberg made the alleged remarks during the Judicial Conference or related meetings, they were not prejudicial.
James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, attends a panel discussion at the annual American Board Association (ABA) Spring Antitrust Meeting at the Marriott Marquis in Washington on April 2, 2025. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images
“A key point of the Judicial Conference and the related meetings is to facilitate candid conversations about judicial administration among leaders of the federal judiciary about matters of common concern,” Sutton said. “In these settings, a judge’s expression of anxiety about executive-branch compliance with judicial orders, whether rightly feared or not, is not so far afield from customary topics at these meetings—judicial independence, judicial security, and inter-branch relations—as to violate the Codes of Judicial Conduct.”
The Code of Conduct for United States Judges says in part that a judge “should respect and comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
The DOJ did not return a request for comment by publication time. Boasberg could not be reached.
The complaint was filed with the Judicial Council of the D.C. Circuit because Boasberg is based in Washington. Justice John Roberts, chief justice of the United States, acting on concerns that judges within the circuit might have to recuse themselves because of pending appellate challenges related to the Venezuelan deportation case, transferred the matter to the Sixth Circuit.
