A scandal developing around the actions of James Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington who long has been an activist against President Donald Trump to the point of pushing legal complaints against him, is giving a whole new meaning to the saying “Justice is blind.”
That phrase suggests justice should be impartial, treating all the same regardless of name, financial status, position and such.
But now a new report from Fox News reveals federal court officials are confirming Boasberg issued gag orders to prevent telephone companies from notifying members of Congress their phone records were being given to Jack Smith, the failed special counsel who orchestrated some of the Democrats’ lawfare cases against Trump, literally without knowing the facts.
That is, court officials have claimed in a letter he ordered phone companies to keep silent about subpoenas for phone number records without knowing who owned the numbers.
The letter is from Robert Conrad Jr., of the administrative office of the United States courts.
The records of many members of Congress, all Republicans, were demanded by Smith as part of the Democrats’ Arctic Frost lawfare investigation against Trump and others.
Conrad, in responding to congressional questions about the politicized investigations and prosecutions, admitted Boasberg likely was naively unaware of the impact of his own decisions.
Those gag orders likely violated the Constitution’s speech or debate clause concerning members of Congress, analysts have confirmed.
The letter confirmed Boasberg “routinely blindly signed gag orders when the Department of Justice requested them, including during Arctic Frost, the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith bringing election charges against President Donald Trump,” the report said.
Smith’s lawfare against Trump all died when Trump was elected to his second term.
Congress has asked Boasberg to testify about the weaponization of the judiciary against Trump, but he is not cooperating.
Conrad’s comments were in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Grassley, along with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wanted Boasberg to explain why he authorized those gag orders.
Conrad, in general terms, explained “relevant practices” used by Democrats against Trump.
He said gag orders often identify the target only by a phone number.
“As a result, [non-disclosure order] applications would not reveal whether a particular phone number belonged to a member of Congress,” he claimed.
That means Boasberg could have violated the Constitution’s protections for congressional speech without his having bothered to check.
Grassley previous noted the DOJ gave Smith the green light for the subpoenas but at the same time cited the likely constitutional violations, meaning the actors in the case knew of the likelihood of their actions being in violation of the Constitution at the time they committed the acts.
“Smith went ahead with the congressional subpoenas anyway, and it appears he and his team didn’t apprise the court of member involvement,” Grassley told Fox News Digital. “Smith’s apparent lack of candor is deeply troubling, and he needs to answer for his conduct.”
The targeted Republicans have charged the Biden DOJ spied on them for political reasons.
Johnson said Boasberg’s “refusal to answer questions from Congress about his approval of unlawful gag orders is an affront to transparency and an obvious attempt to deflect any responsibility for his awareness of or involvement in Jack Smith’s partisan dragnet.”
He called for accountability for Boasberg, and that he must “provide the public a full explanation for his actions.”
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