Misconduct complaint dismissed against judge who handled El Salvador prison deportation case
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court judge has dismissed a misconduct complaint filed by the Justice Department against a judge who clashed with President Donald Trump ’s administration over deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The complaint against U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg was dismissed on Dec. 19 by Jeffrey S. Sutton, chief judge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but the order only came to light over the weekend.
The complaint stemmed from remarks that Boasberg, the chief judge in the district court in the nation’s capital, allegedly made in March 2025 to Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges at a judicial conference saying the administration would trigger a constitutional crisis by disregarding federal court rulings. The meeting took place days before Boasberg issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from an 18th century law.
In the dismissal order, Sutton said the Justice Department never provided a listed attachment to provide proof of what Boasberg said or the context of the alleged statement at the closed-door conference.
“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," said Sutton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to the appeals court circuit that covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A spokesperson for the district court in Washington, Lisa J. Klem, said Monday that Boasberg declined to comment.
Even if Boasberg had made the comments, Sutton said it would not be “so far afield" from topics discussed at the gathering and would not violate ethics rules. Sutton noted that Roberts' 2024 year-end report raised general concerns about threats to judicial independence, security concerns for judges and respect for court orders throughout the nation's history.
The misconduct complaint was filed with 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 appeals court circuit because it was still considering appeals related to the deportation case, according to the dismissal order. Roberts transferred it to the 6th Circuit, it said.
