The White House said Wednesday that President Trump respects Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. but wants the Supreme Court to crack down on “activist” federal judges like the one who ruled against the administration in a deportation case.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during the daily briefing that while the president still believes U.S. District Judge James Boasberg should be impeached over his deportation ruling, “he has also made it clear that he has great respect for the chief justice, John Roberts.”
She said, “And it’s incumbent upon the Supreme Court to rein in these activist judges.”
She continued, “These partisan activists are undermining the judicial branch… We have co-equal branches of government for a reason, and the president feels very strongly about that.”
Mr. Trump on Tuesday called for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment, and congressional Republicans launched an impeachment effort against him. The president called him a “troublemaker and agitator” for trying to thwart his deportation of Venezuelan gang members.
The chief justice denounced attempts to retaliate against judges through impeachment power.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Chief Justice Roberts said in a statement.
The flared tempers were the latest escalation in a case that has quickly become the centerpiece of the legal resistance to Mr. Trump.
The White House says Judge Boasberg is threatening national security.
“The judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the president doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil,” Ms. Leavitt said.
“That is an egregious abuse of the bench. This judge does not have that authority. It is the opinion of this, of this White House and of this administration, and that’s why we’re fighting this in court,” she said.
