Jim Jordan Asks Gingrich Point Blank: 'Do You Think Judge Boasberg Should Recuse Himself?'

2 days ago

At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) questioned former Speaker Newt Gingrich about Judge James Boasberg.

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Transcript

00:00We now go to the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr.

00:04Chairman. Professor Shaw, so was Judge Boasberg correct when he said turn the

00:08plane around? So, you know, I think that protecting the jurisdiction of his court...

00:18That wasn't the question. Was he correct when he said turn the plane around, bring

00:21the guys back who harassed Ms. Romero, drove her out of her home, harassed her

00:26neighbors, shot her car? Was he correct when he said turn the plane around, bring

00:30those individuals back to the United States? Based on the record before him, I

00:34think that was an absolutely defensible decision to have made in the time

00:37pressured condition. Ms. Romero, what do you think? You agree with the professor

00:42and with the judge? Three of those, by the way, three of those individuals on the

00:46plane, Thomas Murillo-Pena, was wanted for kidnapping in Chile, was in the Denver

00:52area where they got him. Javier Vargas Lugo, attempted kidnapping, was in the

00:56Denver area. Nixon Azusa Perez was in the Aurora area. He may have been one of the

01:01guys who harassed you. Do you think that plane should have came back and brought

01:03those individuals back to the United States? I feel safer every time a plane

01:08is loaded up and leaving this country. Yeah, I was, you know, the previous

01:13member from California talked about your riveting testimony. One of the lines you

01:17had in your testimony that got everyone's attention was, quote, there are

01:21no government programs to grant citizens temporary protected status from

01:26imported gangs in our country. Amen to that. There is none, and that's why

01:30this is so important that we move these people out. Mr. Speaker, should the judge

01:36who's been assigned the Hegseth case, Judge Boasberg, should he recuse himself

01:41from that case? And understand the standard, I know you do, Speaker,

01:45the standard is a reasonable person. Would a reasonable person believe that

01:49this judge can't be impartial with this case? And I would just remind you of a

01:53couple things. This is the judge. This is the judge who was on the FISA court

01:59when they granted warrants to spy on President Trump's campaign. This is the

02:03judge who handled the Kevin Clinesmith case, an FBI lawyer who lied to the FISA

02:08court to help get those warrants and was given a slap on the wrist by Judge

02:13Boasberg. Not my words. The Wall Street Journal said it because it was. He was a

02:17member of the bar, lied to a court and got some probationary sentence. So now

02:22this judge said, turn the plane around, and now he's been assigned the Hegseth

02:26case. And I'm just asking, do you think Judge Boasberg should recuse himself

02:31from that case? Look, I think this is a classic case where the chief justice

02:38should intervene. I mean, when you have a blatant continuing record of prejudice,

02:45that judge should not be put in charge of a case. And as I said earlier, I'm

02:50not for going through the whole process of impeachment because I think it's at

02:54a practical level not possible. I am, however, for using the potential

02:59capacity of the Congress to simply defund, which Jefferson did and which

03:04clearly has a clearly is possible. But I think this what you just described is

03:09illustrative of why I use the term coup d'etat. You have a small group of

03:13people who believe that they have the right to arrogate, rejecting the

03:17American people and doing whatever they want and cooperating with people who

03:21clearly were behaving illegally. I mean, that's one of the great tragedies of

03:25the last six or eight years is it's the government which has been illegal. It's

03:29the FBI which was illegal. And how can you possibly have the rule of law when

03:34the people in charge of the law are illegal? I think in that case, you raise

03:39a very powerful point. Mr Larkin, should Judge Boasberg recuse himself in the

03:43Hegseth case? Oh, I don't want to offer an opinion about a specific case that

03:48I'm, you know, know only yet. Do you think Judge Boasberg, based on what the

03:52speaker just said, what I highlight, think Judge Boasberg has a bias against

03:54President Trump and what he's trying to accomplish? That's just phrasing the

03:58same question another way. I don't want to comment on a penalty. That's what we

04:02do in Congress. Yeah, I know. A lot of times. Yeah. When I was an agent, we did

04:06the same thing to see if we could get the suspect to say something. How about

04:09this, Speaker Gingrich? I think you're exactly right. We have three avenues to

04:13address this. We can do legislative, which we're gonna do tomorrow. We're

04:15gonna pass Chairman Isis bill, which says that some district judge injunction

04:19doesn't apply nationwide. We may want to come back with another bill that says

04:23automatic appeal to the Supreme Court. What you've suggested, and we're looking

04:26at that very thing. Second, we have oversight, which is what we're doing

04:29now. We're highlighting how ridiculous some of these decisions have been. And

04:33third, what you pointed out is we got the appropriation process. The ultimate

04:36power we have. Mr Massey's right. The power of the purse. We should use it. We

04:40should use all three of those avenues to make sure the will of the people we the

04:45people gets accomplished. Well, my personal view is that if you were to

04:51pass the Isis bill tomorrow, you just sent a very clear and compelling signal

04:56to the chief justice that he had better get out of lecturing the Congress and

05:01get into managing the judiciary, or he's gonna be facing a real crisis of

05:05the system and a real erosion of judicial authority. Well said. I yield

05:10back. Gentlemen yields back. We now go to the gentleman from Tennessee. Mr

05:14Cohen. Thank you, Mr Chairman. The judicial branch in our country plays a

05:20critical role in checks and balance.

Jim Jordan Asks Gingrich Point Blank: 'Do You Think Judge Boasberg Should Recuse Himself?'

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