Fresh Trump-linked case puts Boasberg back in GOP crosshairs

By Fox News · Fox News

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is again facing scrutiny for his assigned cases after California Rep. Eric Swalwell's high-profile lawsuit accusing a senior Trump housing official of brazen misconduct landed in his court. Some Republicans have criticized Boasberg's docket, given his assignment to an earlier legal challenge involving President Donald Trump 's removal of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison in March and his role in presiding over the so-called "Signalgate" lawsuit, which, as of this writing, is all but mooted. But like other federal courts, the D.C. District Court assigns its cases to judges via a randomized computer system — a process that former federal judges outlined to Fox News Digital in a series of recent interviews. A Fox News Digital review of the cases assigned to judges in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., showed the same — putting Boasberg on the lower side of Trump-related case assignments compared to some of his colleagues in the district. Judges are "totally reactive" by design, Philip Pro, a former U.S. district judge and Reagan appointee, said last month about the cases judges are tasked with hearing. SHELTERS, JESUS, AND MISS PAC-MAN: US JUDGE GRILLS DOJ OVER TRANS POLICY IN DIZZYING LINE OF QUESTIONING "We're sitting in our districts. The cases are randomly assigned," Pro said. "There is nothing ‘rogue’ about these decisions." Boasberg’s earlier work on the FISA Court — and his rulings in cases tied to the Trump era — have long made him a focal point for Trump’s criticism. In 2014, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to serve a seven-year term on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA Court — a court composed of 11 federal judges hand-selected by the chief justice. After returning full-time to the federal bench, Boasberg oversaw the sentencing of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to doctoring a 2017 email asking to extend surveillance permi…