EXCLUSIVE: A watchdog group filed a complaint against Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday alleging he improperly coordinated with Biden Department of Justice officials on sweeping investigations tied to former President Donald Trump and his allies.
The complaint, filed by the conservative watchdog Center to Advance Security in America and obtained by Fox News Digital, accused Boasberg of engaging in “probable judicial misconduct” by consulting with DOJ officials about Arctic Frost, an FBI investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith charging Trump over the 2020 election.
The complaint cited internal DOJ meeting notes from 2023, recently made public by the Senate Judiciary Committee, that referenced briefings Smith’s team had with Boasberg and Judge Beryl Howell, both Obama appointees, as Arctic Frost and a separate probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents was underway. CASA’s complaint, filed with the D.C. appellate court, comes as part of a growing clash between Republicans and Democrat-appointed judges who presided over key developments in the investigations and prosecutions of Trump.
CASA’s complaint suggested both Boasberg and Howell were improperly looped into discussions about investigative “strategizing” before charges against Trump were brought. At the time, Boasberg was the incoming chief judge of D.C.’s federal court and Howell the outgoing chief judge. CASA filed a similar complaint about Howell last week, Fox News Digital confirmed. The Republican watchdog called for the court to investigate Boasberg.
“While the facts strongly suggest that Boasberg violated the canons of judicial ethics, investigation should be promptly opened to confirm,” Curtis Schube, CASA director of research and policy, wrote.
The documents released by the Senate committee included notes about a briefing Smith’s team gave Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 13, 2023, just after Garland appointed Smith as special counsel. The notes referenced meetings with Boasberg and Howell, both of whom became Trump nemeses known for their high-profile adverse rulings against the president.
“[Howell] liked our approach of pursuing the executive privilege litigation in an omnibus fashion,” Smith’s team wrote in the briefing notes. Omnibus motions allow for consolidated, instead of piecemeal, litigation and are typically used by lawyers to streamline court filings. The briefing notes also referenced a forthcoming meeting with Boasberg on March 18, 2023, the day after he was set to succeed Howell as chief judge.
CASA noted in its complaint that Boasberg went on to sign numerous nondisclosure orders, also known as gag orders, that blocked telephone and tech companies from notifying Republican targets when Smith’s team subpoenaed their phone records or other data. Some of those targets included GOP members of Congress, leading the lawmakers to openly and repeatedly rebuke the Biden DOJ and Boasberg for allowing what they have alleged was a breach of the Constitution’s speech or debate clause.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said in December that Boasberg would not have known who the gag orders applied to because prosecutors would not have informed him of whose numbers were listed on the subpoenas, based on the court’s standard practice. Smith has also defended his work repeatedly, testifying to Congress that he followed DOJ policy regarding subpoenas.
CASA said Boasberg’s judicial immunity, which federal law affords judges, has limitations.
CONSERVATIVES ACCUSE JACK SMITH OF IMPROPER TIES WITH JUDGES IN TRUMP CASES AFTER NEW DOCUMENT DUMP
“There is no world in which the statutes were designed to protect a judge meeting with prospective litigants to strategize with them on how to win a case in front of them in the future,” Schube wrote. “This is especially true when the meetings are designed for the government to determine ways to put its political opposition in jail, which is exactly what Arctic Frost was designed to do.”
Boasberg’s chambers declined to comment on the complaint.
While critics have said the meetings, which are central to CASA’s complaint, could indicate collusion between judges and prosecutors targeting Trump, others have said they were innocuous and normal, designed to achieve efficiency in an already-overwhelmed court system as major investigations took place.
Smith’s investigations eventually led to criminal charges against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and retained classified documents. Trump called the investigations a “witch hunt” and accused all involved with them of corruption, while Republicans widely condemned the charges as an abuse of power designed to take out the then leading Republican presidential candidate.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, tossed out the classified documents case, finding Smith was improperly appointed special counsel. Smith was appealing that decision when Trump won the 2024 election. After Trump’s victory, Smith terminated both cases, citing a DOJ policy that advises against prosecuting sitting presidents.
