James Boasberg Snubs Senate Hearing On ‘Rogue Judges’

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Two of the federal judges facing impeachment threats refused to attend a Wednesday Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on “rogue judges.” 

James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman, district judges in Washington and Maryland, respectively, told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts that they would not appear over concerns about the separation of powers and judicial ethics. 

Their refusal was delivered through a Nov. 12 letter sent by U.S. Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, to Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the subcommittee. 

Conrad claimed that allowing the judges to testify could violate ethics rules and “encroach upon the separation of powers,” according to the Daily Caller. 

He cited judicial rule Canon 3A(6), which forbids judges from testifying about matters they have decided or that may be pending before them. 

“The commentary to this provision explains that the ‘admonition against public comment about the merits of a pending or impending matter continues until the appellate process is complete,’” Conrad added. 

Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Judge Robert Conrad cited part of the code of conduct stating a judge “should not make public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court.”

— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) December 2, 2025

Cruz scheduled the hearing to examine possible impeachment proceedings against federal judges accused of overstepping their authority.

Boasberg is one of those judges, Republicans argue. He is facing impeachment threats from Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas,  

Gill filed the articles of impeachment accusing Boasberg of abusing his “judicial authority” for approving Biden-era search warrants targeting Republican lawmakers and other conservative organizations part of the Jan. 6 investigation. 

“Judge Boasberg was an accomplice in the egregious Arctic Frost scandal where he equipped the Biden DOJ to spy on Republican senators,” Gill wrote in a statement. 

“His lack of integrity makes him clearly unfit for the gavel.” 

Boardman is also facing impeachment efforts, this time from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, over her lenient eight-year sentence for the convicted would-be assassin of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  

Boardman cited the attacker’s declared transgender identity to justify sparing him from a harsher penalty. 

“Boardman unequivocally based this weak sentence on the attempted assassin’s ‘gender identity,’ as the attempted assassin expressed that he views himself as a woman,” Roy wrote in a separate statement. “Instead of doing what the Judiciary calls for and sentencing this man to the base 30-year sentence recommended by the Department of Justice, Judge Boardman purposefully allowed this man off easy.”