By A coalition of Republican lawmakers is calling for the impeachment of Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accusing him of concealing federal subpoenas that secretly obtained the phone records of multiple GOP senators.
The uproar followed revelations from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who released documents showing that special counsel Jack Smith’s office had sought phone data from 11 Republican senators and one House member during its 2023 investigation into former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election challenges. The subpoenas demanded call logs, text data, and voicemail records between January 4 and 7, 2021—but not the content of the communications.
Boasberg, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, approved nondisclosure orders to keep the subpoenas secret, arguing disclosure could “result in destruction of or tampering with evidence.” The targeted lawmakers included Sens. Ron Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Cynthia Lummis, Rick Scott, and Tommy Tuberville, along with Rep. Mike Kelly, according to The Daily Caller.
Critics claim the orders may have violated a 1992 statute protecting congressional communications. Former Senate GOP counsel Mike Fragoso warned online, “If Smith or Boasberg violated that statute, it’s a very serious problem that probably justifies a bar investigation and could predicate an impeachment inquiry.”
Some have said the scandal is worse than Watergate.
The subpoenas were served to AT&T and Verizon. In an October 24 letter to Grassley, AT&T said it had questioned the subpoenas’ legality and ultimately withheld the data after Smith’s team failed to follow up. Verizon, by contrast, complied, calling the subpoena “facially valid.” Sen. Graham condemned Verizon’s decision as “extremely irresponsible,” urging it to invoke the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause to resist similar demands in the future.
Whistleblower disclosures linked the effort—codenamed “Arctic Frost” inside the FBI—to a broader Biden-era probe that issued nearly 200 subpoenas across political, media, and executive circles. Grassley described the operation as “the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
Sen. Ted Cruz has emerged as the loudest voice for impeachment. “Judge Boasberg put his robe down, stood up and said, ‘Sign me up to be part of the partisan vendetta against 20% of Republicans in the Senate,’” Cruz charged at a press conference. Calling Boasberg “a radical leftist judge who is out of control,” Cruz urged, “I am right now calling on the House of Representatives to impeach Judge Boasberg.”
🚨 SENATOR TED CRUZ GOES BALLISTIC: "I am right now calling on the House of Representatives to IMPEACH Judge Boasberg! Judge Boasberg put his robe down, stood up and said, 'sign me up to be part of the partisan vendetta against 20% of the Republicans in the Senate!'"
"That is a… pic.twitter.com/v1f2eHiATL
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 29, 2025
Sen. Graham backed that call, denouncing the secrecy orders as “legal slander” and demanding a “Watergate-style investigation.”
Article III Project President Mike Davis told Fox News that Boasberg’s rulings were “extremely lawless” and “extremely dangerous.” Rep. Brandon Gill said he is preparing impeachment articles, citing earlier controversies over Boasberg’s rulings halting Trump-era deportation flights.
That prior case raised recusal concerns because Boasberg’s daughter worked for an immigration nonprofit that publicly praised his decision, noted The Daily Signal. Heritage Foundation fellow Hans von Spakovsky said, “Given that [Boasberg’s] daughter works directly for an organization that supports illegal aliens… the impartiality of his judgment is obviously open to be reasonably questioned.”
Rep. Chip Roy called on House Republicans to act “swiftly to impeach Boasberg as well as other indefensibly lawless judges.” Sen. Eric Schmitt posted, “I am openly biased, gone rogue, and likely broken the law.” Heritage and Oversight leaders also accused Washington’s judiciary of “institutional overreach” and “defiance of federal statute.”
Smith’s attorneys, Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, countered in an October 21 letter to Grassley that the subpoenas were “entirely proper, lawful, and consistent with established Department of Justice policy.” They said Smith had acted “without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences.”
With impeachment drafts circulating and bar reviews looming, the dispute has reignited Republican claims of politicized justice.
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