Senate panel sets up hearing on impeachments of 'rogue judges'

Ryan Tarinelli, CQ-Roll Call on Dec 2, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are poised to square off at a hearing Wednesday on a long-running, but so far unsuccessful, Republican push to impeach judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Republican House members have filed impeachment resolutions against a myriad of judges this Congress after rulings against immigration policies, Trump administration funding decisions and more.

But those efforts have stalled in the House, amid concerns that moving forward would break with a centuries-old tradition of not ousting judges based solely on their decisions.

Senators will have an opportunity to weigh in on the debate during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday entitled, “Impeachment: Holding Rogue Judges Accountable.”

GOP-led impeachment resolutions have targeted judges from across the U.S., but Republicans have seethed in particular at Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Republicans escalated their push for his impeachment last month after GOP lawmakers said the jurist signed off on non-disclosure orders that hid subpoenas that sought call records from the phones of Republican senators.

The phone records were sought as part of an investigation named “Arctic Frost,” which lawmakers say formed the basis of former John L. “Jack” Smith’s investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who leads the subcommittee, has called for the House to impeach Boasberg. “He is not being a judge. He is being a partisan, left-wing activist, and he needs to be removed from office,” Cruz said in a video.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and others sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last month calling for Boasberg to be “administratively suspended pending formal impeachment by the House of Representatives.”

The Arctic Frost complaints prompted Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who initially filed articles of impeachment against Boasberg in March, to do so again last month.

“Judge Boasberg was an accomplice in the egregious Arctic Frost scandal where he equipped the Biden DOJ to spy on Republican senators,” Gill said in a statement. “His lack of integrity makes him clearly unfit for the gavel.”

Cruz and other senators last month also appealed to Attorney General Pamela Bondi, in a letter asking her to move to unseal an application for a non-disclosure order signed by Boasberg. Lawmakers said they believe the application is under seal in the Arctic Frost grand jury materials.

“Judge Boasberg’s order was a blatant abuse of power, and we must get to the bottom of how he arrived at the baseless conclusion that duly elected members of Congress would destroy evidence or intimidate witnesses,” the letter states.

Boasberg also elicited ire from Republicans earlier this year, after he ordered a temporary halt to the removal of all noncitizens in U.S. custody who were targeted under the administration’s proclamation based on a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act.

As part of that case, Boasberg also has clashed with Trump officials in recent weeks in proceedings over potential criminal contempt of court for refusing to comply with his order stopping deportation flights.

But the House has yet to move forward with any impeachment proceedings against a judge. It would also be an extremely rare step for the House to impeach a federal judge.

Since 1803, only 15 judges have faced impeachment, the last in 2010 on charges of accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

Beyond Boasberg, Republicans have filed a wave of impeachment resolutions this year against judges they disagree with.

Among the more recent resolutions, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, filed articles of impeachment against a judge in Maryland who sentenced the attempted assassin of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to more than eight years in prison.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for Sophie Roske, who is transgender and is referred to as Nicholas Roske in some court documents.

Republicans fumed over the sentence, arguing it was far too lenient and undermined the gravity of an assassination attempt against a sitting Supreme Court justice.

In delivering the sentence, Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said that some of the actions from Roske — including turning herself in — justified a departure below the 30 years to life in prison that federal sentencing guidelines suggested.

A source familiar with the planning of Wednesday’s hearing said Boasberg and Boardman declined invitations to appear.