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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 and for Boasberg's court
did not immediately return messages seeking 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.
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