Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday urging the House to take up the filed articles of impeachment against Federal Judges James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman.
“Both cases reveal a judiciary that has explicitly ignored its constitutional duties. I urge the House to take up its constitutional duty and advance the impeachment resolutions introduced by Representatives Gill and Roy,” Cruz wrote in his letter to Johnson.
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Boasberg, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is under scrutiny from GOP lawmakers because of his conduct related to the FBI’s Operation “Arctic Frost” under the Biden administration. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) filed for impeachment against Boasberg, alleging he improperly granted nondisclosure orders to the telecommunications companies that spied on GOP Senators, including Cruz, as part of Operation Arctic Frost.
Along with sending the letter to Johnson, Cruz held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the conduct of Boasberg and Boardman, District Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
Cruz and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who filed impeachment articles against her, allege Boardman improperly lessened the prison sentence for Nicholas Roske, the man who attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Cruz alleges in his letter to Johnson that Boardman lessened Roske’s sentence by 22 years out of concern Roske over his gender identity.
“Judge Boardman reduced a potential thirty-year sentence to a mere eight years, citing as mitigating the defendant’s self-declared status as a ‘transgender woman’ and expressing concern that ‘she’ would be housed in a male facility.” Cruz wrote.
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In Cruz’s hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee‘s subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse rebutted many of Cruz’s points. Whitehouse quoted Chief Justice John Roberts, saying, “Impeachment isn’t a remedy for judges getting decisions wrong. Appeal is the remedy for that, as the Chief Justice has stated.”
Whitehouse said it was “telling” that the hearing targeted Judge Boasberg, who sentenced January 6 rioters and has ruled against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. Gill first filed articles of impeachment against Boasberg in March over the latter ruling. Boasberg has also been the target of President Donald Trump’s Truth Social attacks.
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“All of this looks very much like a MAGA-coordinated strategy to bring pressure and threats to bear on a federal judge,” Whitehouse said. “There was a time when I’d have hoped a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee would not be roped into a scheme to amplify pressure and threats against a sitting federal judge, but here we are in a hearing that specifically targets Chief Judge Boasberg.”
Boasberg is an appointee of former President Barack Obama, and Boardman was appointed by former President Joe Biden.