A Trump Justice Department official is soliciting examples of perceived judicial activism from all US attorneys’ offices to inform potential impeachment referrals to Congress, portending an escalation of the executive branch’s clash with judges.
At a recent virtual meeting, chief prosecutors and other leaders of the 93 US attorneys’ offices were told to provide DOJ headquarters with vivid instances in which judges obstructed through adverse rulings, said two people familiar with the call.
An adviser to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche making the request told senior prosecutors he was collecting fodder to determine when it’s necessary for DOJ to refer judges to the House for impeachment proceedings, added the people, who spoke anonymously about a private meeting.
Seeking to impeach judges whose decisions thwart President Donald Trump’s enforcement agenda would mark a more aggressive front for the Trump DOJ. Blanche has previously described a “war” with the federal judiciary and DOJ’s former chief of staff filed a misconduct complaint against Washington’s chief federal trial judge.
Associate DAG Aakash Singh, who oversees US attorneys’ offices, made the request, which was confirmed by a DOJ spokesperson.
“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.
Singh told US attorneys and their top supervisors that, in addition to impeachment recommendations, their information may also be used to craft a more aggressive appellate strategy or to propose legislative fixes.
The DOJ initiative dovetails with a ramped up push from Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans last month to impeach two federal judges targeted by Trump allies for rulings they issued seen as unfavorable to the administration. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has since endorsed this rarely used tool, calling it an “extreme measure” that’s still warranted for “egregious abuses” by judges.
Johnson faces difficult math in his chamber to carry through with an impeachment threat. He can afford to lose only one Republican vote, assuming all Democrats vote against the resolution. And the effort is all but assured to fail in the Senate, which holds impeachment trials and where a two-thirds vote is required to convict.
“We don’t do one unless we think we truly have the elements necessary for the Senate to agree with us,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee panel with oversight of the judicial branch, said in an interview last week.
The DOJ spokesperson cited judges’ refusal to sign criminal complaints and search warrants with “clear probable cause” and “erroneously inserting themselves” into the US attorney nominations process as examples of “judicial activism from rogue judges who care more about making a name for themselves than acting as than impartial arbiters of the law.”
A Justice Department impeachment referral would potentially provide new election-year fodder for Republicans targeting the federal bench following a period of growing tensions between the executive branch and the courts. DOJ leaders have been particularly critical of rulings disqualifying US attorneys in key districts and dismissing cases against Trump’s political opponents.
Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a joint statement on social media in December accusing federal judges in Eastern Virginia of “engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility against” then-US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, whose appointment a judge had found illegal in dismissing indictments of Trump adversaries James Comey and Letitia James.
Bondi and Blanche sought to revive those indictments Monday in an appeal that accused the judge of infringing on the president’s power to appoint US attorneys.
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