By Nate Raymond and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up its pressure on the U.S. judiciary on Tuesday, with the Justice Department saying it has asked federal prosecutors to supply it with the “most egregious examples” of judges impeding his agenda so Congress could take action against them.
The Justice Department, which is led by Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, made the disclosure in response to a report by Bloomberg Law that an official recently asked all 93 U.S. Attorneys for examples of perceived judicial activism that could inform potential impeachment referrals to Congress.
The U.S. Constitution sets out an impeachment process under which the House of Representatives votes to bring charges and the Senate holds a trial on whether to convict and remove an official – in this case a federal judge – from office for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Congress is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans.
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement the Trump administration “is facing unprecedented judicial activism from rogue judges who care more about making a name for themselves than acting as impartial arbiters of the law.”
“The Department of Justice solicited the most egregious examples of this obstruction from our U.S. Attorney Offices to assist Congress with efforts to rein in judges violating their oaths in accordance with their constitutional oversight authority of the judicial branch,” the spokesperson said.
Trump and Bondi have assailed some judges who have issued rulings impeding his hardline immigration policies and other core parts of his agenda. Trump critics have accused him of seeking to undermine the judiciary, a coequal branch of government, and subvert the rule of law.
The Justice Department previously filed at least two judicial misconduct complaints against judges handling cases against Trump’s policies, both of which subsequently were dismissed.
Among those judges is Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., one of at least eight judges facing impeachment resolutions filed by Trump allies in the House.
They first sought Boasberg’s impeachment after he blocked Trump from using wartime powers to deport Venezuelan migrants.
Several then signed on to a second impeachment resolution accusing Boasberg of improperly ordering carriers not to disclose that phone records for several Republican lawmakers were sought during former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 reelection loss.
Neither resolution has advanced in the House. Trump last year called for Boasberg’s impeachment and referred to him as “radical left,” prompting U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare rebuke describing impeachment as “not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.” Roberts and the other conservative justices who hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court have sided with Trump in a series of emergency rulings in the past year.
Only 15 judges have been impeached by the House in U.S. history, and just eight were convicted by the Senate. The House, then controlled by Democrats, voted twice to impeach Trump during his first term in office, but the Senate both times failed to muster the two-thirds majority vote to convict him.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
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