UPDATE (April 16, 2025 2:07 p.m. E.T.): U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Thursday that probable cause exists to find the Trump administration in contempt for violating his order over deportation flights to El Salvador.
President Donald Trump’s team is effective at using fiery rhetoric, which often includes lies, to paint his opponents as villains and to manufacture crises they insist only he can solve. Take the current fracas over the deportation of Venezuelan migrants whose alleged gang ties led Trump to declare them terrorists.
The debate reached fever pitch Wednesday, when Attorney General Pam Bondi, in an appearance on Fox News, launched an incendiary attack on so-called liberal U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, accusing him of “meddling in our government.” Bondi said, “And the question should be, why is the judge trying to protect terrorists who invaded our country over American citizens?”
That’s quite the statement. Rather, it’s empty rhetoric not supported by facts.
Whoa, nelly. That’s quite the statement. Rather, it’s empty rhetoric not supported by facts.
What’s especially pernicious is Bondi’s arrogant use of “our government” — as if the federal judiciary is not a co-equal branch of government. There’s an old-fashioned, but still appropriate idea that the public is best served when the Department of Justice speaks through its court filings. It’s also outrageous for Bondi to launch a verbal assault against a federal judge amidst an increased wave of violent threats.
None of this is normal.
But this is how Bondi rolls. In less than two months, the attorney general, who’s sworn to protect and defend all of us, has gained a reputation for just offering red meat to MAGA conservatives, whether lying about crime rates or mocking Hunter Biden at partisan political conferences or shattering norms by appearing exclusively on one conservative TV network every week of her tenure. She first proved herself in 2020, embracing Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. She even travelled to Pennsylvania and made claims of “evidence of cheating” and “fake ballots” that didn’t exist.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Bondi the MAGA warrior would viciously attack Boasberg, a nonpartisan judge who was appointed to a seat on the D.C. Superior Court by Republican President George W. Bush. When President Barack Obama nominated him for a federal judgeship a decade later, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him.
Judge Boasberg is neither a knee-jerk liberal nor a died-in-the-wool conservative. He has issued rulings that Trump supported, such as when he ordered the FBI to release thousands of emails belonging to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and he has issued rulings that Trump opposed, such as cleared the way for former Vice President Mike Pence to provide grand jury testimony in DOJ’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In law school, “this Democrat activist,” as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrongly labeled him this week, roomed with now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who presided over his investiture.
Contrary to Bondi’s incendiary rhetoric that Judge Boasberg has “no right to ask those questions,” the truth is he has the right and is right to ask hard questions of the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. The law was last used following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II to relocate and incarcerate thousands of people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. The Trump administration has provided no proof — to the court or anybody else — that the individuals detained and deported are in fact violent gang members in the country illegally. They’re telling the court and the public, but not showing us the proof, as MSNBC’s Ali Vitali observed. It’s easy to understand why Judge Boasberg would have some questions, given the Trump administration’s “shoot first, ask questions later” sloppy approach to government. Like when they mistakenly declared a Seattle man dead and stopped his Social Security benefits; or abruptly fired (and then rehired) hundreds highly trained federal employees working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs. Or inadvertently released Social Security numbers and other private information of former congressional staff. The list of things they should be questioned about is long. It’s easy to understand why Judge Boasberg would have questions, given the Trump administration’s sloppy approach to government. But none of this matters to the Trump administration, which senses a political opening. And on the underlying question — the removal of any violent undocumented immigrant from the country — he has the support of most Americans, including Democrats. In fact, immigration/border security is the only major issue in which the majority of Americans approve of how Trump is handling it, according NBC News polling. Fifty-five percent of voters approve of his handling of the issue, while 43% disapprove. A clear majority, 56%, say he’s bringing the “right kind of change” on the issue. But even policies that the American people approve of must be carried out according to the law, and, as Judge Boasberg is working to determine if applicable laws were followed, Trump and his administration are sowing discord for his political benefit. And Bondi’s part in sowing that discord includes her characterizing as an offense the sacred obligation that a judge, and indeed every member of a co-equal branch government, has to ensure that we all live up to our constitutional responsibilities.
Anthony Coley
Anthony Coley is a legal analyst for NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC. He was director of the Justice Department’s office of public affairs from February 2021 until January 2023. 
