What a recess week this has been for Congress. Mainly because President Donald Trump continues to challenge congressional authority at every turn.
With lawmakers back at home or scattered around the globe, Trump told the independent Federal Reserve that it should lower interest rates. He signed an executive order to begin shutting down the Department of Education, which was created by an act of Congress more than 45 years ago.
Trump backed Israel’s renewed military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The president then threatened war with Iran, yet also sent a letter to the Iranians offering talks on a new nuclear deal.
Trump spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a less-than-successful attempt to hash out a ceasefire between the warring nations.
Trump ordered the release of the JFK assassination files, which shed little new light on Kennedy’s murder. He stripped Secret Service protection from former President Joe Biden’s children. And the Pentagon seems ready to overhaul the entire combatant command structure despite public objections from Republicans.
Those are just the highlights, of course. Lawmakers are going to be asked to respond to all of these developments when they return to Washington Monday.
But let’s focus on Trump’s most controversial demand — that Congress move to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for ruling against the administration’s deportation policies.
We wanted to turn the lens around on this and attempt — to the extent that’s possible — to understand precisely what the Trump administration wants Hill Republicans to do here.
Does the White House really want the House to initiate impeachment proceedings and the Senate to hold an impeachment trial? Only 15 judges in American history have been impeached, just eight convicted, including the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.). It’s a drastic punishment that would threaten the independence of the judicial branch. Democrats are up in arms over the possibility of this happening.
As with many things in Trump’s Washington, it depends on who you ask.
There are those inside the White House who want House Republicans to push through impeachment articles in order to put Boasberg through hell. The arduous impeachment process itself is the point, not whether Boasberg is ultimately removed from office, some administration officials say.
Boasberg — who has an impressive resume — was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Barack Obama. (Former President George W. Bush appointed him to the D.C. Superior Court.)
And there are those in Trump’s inner circle who see impeaching Boasberg as some kind of payback to Democrats for Trump’s two impeachments. Of course, impeaching a district court judge is nothing like impeaching a president.
The impeachment resolution, penned by freshman Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), only has five co-sponsors so far: Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.). The House GOP leadership is watching very closely whether this number balloons next week or stays relatively contained.
The cited basis for impeaching Boasberg, who Trump has singled out repeatedly in social media posts, is vague. Boasberg is allegedly “in violation of his oath of office, did knowingly and willfully use his judicial position to advance political gain while interfering with the President’s constitutional prerogatives and enforcement of the rule of law.” What “political gain” Boasberg got from this isn’t specified.
Of course, the reality is more complicated. Boasberg simply ruled against Trump, which most legal analysts don’t believe is a high crime or misdemeanor.
Bottom line: House Republicans don’t have the votes to impeach Boasberg. That won’t stop the House (and Senate) Judiciary Committee from holding hearings on the issue. But there’s very little chance that Boasberg will ever be removed from office even if the House does impeach him. There’s no way Senate Democrats would go along with such a drastic action.
Which leads us to a second line of thinking in Trump’s White House. Some senior administration officials say that House Republicans shouldn’t do anything to divide the party. Instead, Republicans should focus on legislative priorities that unite them.
Several senior GOP leadership sources point to Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) bill that would bar district judges from issuing nationwide injunctions. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a similar legislative effort in the Senate Thursday. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hinted that there may be other legislative remedies short of impeachment that he could pursue. Top GOP officials have only just begun discussing what legislation they may pursue on this front.
But again, this didn’t go anywhere in the last Congress when Republicans did their own “judge shopping” against Biden, especially in a couple of Texas federal courts.
House Democrats, meanwhile, are salivating at a Boasberg impeachment fight. Here’s what one House Democratic lawmaker texted us Thursday:
“We are HOPING these morons go the judge impeachment route. The more the better. We’d love to eat up time on the clock over something that won’t happen.”
