The judge assigned to a civil lawsuit regarding a Signal group chat among Trump cabinet members on Houthi strikes is the same judge who issued an order to block the administration’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members.
James Boasberg, the Obama-appointed chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is assigned to the case that a group called American Oversight is bringing against five of the cabinet members, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney.
The lawsuit against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the National Archives and Records Administration is brought under the Federal Records Act (FRA).
It requests the court find that “messages and communications sent through the Signal application in the course of conducting agency business are agency records subject to the FRA.”
American Oversight filed the case on Tuesday in the nation’s capital, and Boasberg, who Trump has said should be impeached, was assigned to the case Wednesday morning.
Boasberg is the judge who ruled to block Trump’s deportation of illegal aliens suspected of being TdA gang members after the president invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act on March 15.
“Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States however that is accomplished,” Boasberg announced, as Politico noted. “Make sure it’s complied with immediately.”
However, by March 16, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared that 238 suspected TdA gang members had arrived in the country from the U.S. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Breitbart News the suspected TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory when Boasberg ruled to block the move.
“The Administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict,” she said.
On March 18, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment in a Truth Social post after calling him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge.”
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” he wrote.
The case is American Oversight v. Hegseth in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:25-cv-00883.
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