In ruling that Venezuelan immigrants accused of gang membership should get a chance to dispute the allegations against them, federal District Court Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg was simply adhering to the same legal tenets that guided him as a Washington, D.C., homicide prosecutor two decades ago.
He was held in the highest regard by fellow prosecutors and police officers, as well as the families of murder victims.
”He was absolutely, totally adored by everybody,” retired homicide Det. James Trainum of the Metropolitan Police Department told the Daily Beast on Monday. “A straight shooter…Nothing could rattle him. He just took everything in stride, but really, really smart [and] fair. I just could not say enough good things about him.”
Trainum worked on a number of cases in which Boasberg was a prosecutor, including the murders of two 19-year-old deaf students in their dorm rooms at the Harvard of the hearing-impaired, Gallaudet University in D.C.
Eric Plunkett was battered to death in September of 2000. The case was still unsolved in February of 2001 when a second student, Benjamin Varner, was fatally stabbed.
In the immediate aftermath of the second killing, an MPD K-9 cop discovered a bloody jacket in a dumpster outside the dorm. Trainum and Det. Jeff Williams clambered into the dumpster and began emptying it. They recovered a paring knife that proved to be the murder weapon.
A short time later, police arrested a 20-year-old freshman, Joseph Mesa. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and went to trial. Boasberg teamed up with fellow Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Collins to prosecute the case.
The first witness Boasberg called was Kathleen Cornils, mother of the murdered Eric Plunkett. Boasberg led her through an account of how she contracted German measles during her pregnancy and her son was left deaf and suffering from cerebral palsy concentrated in his legs. Boasberg made sure she also conveyed that Eric possessed an indomitable spirit and had been a joy to their family and everybody he encountered.
“[Boasberg] was bringing Eric as a person into the courtroom,” Cornils recalled.
As the case progressed, Boasberg took care to keep her and the family informed.
“We had no experience with the judicial system, so everything was new to us, and he explained to us what…he was trying to get out of whoever was on his stand,” she remembered.
The accused took the stand and testified via a sign language interpreter that hands in black leather gloves had appeared before him and instructed him to kill his two roommates. He added that the hands had also ordered him to kill Boasberg.
“You are thinking about attacking me. But you’ve been able to control yourself,” Boasberg replied through the interpreter. “You haven’t attacked me, have you?”
In his summation, Boasberg told the jury that the killings were in fact robberies, “planned, calculated, deliberate and covered up.”
“He did it, and he was sane.” Boasberg said. “Convict him.”
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before coming back with a guilty verdict.
“An insanity defense doesn’t work if you’re not insane,” Boasberg noted.
Mesa was sentenced to two terms of life-without-parole. Cornils was left feeling that Boasberg had been everything her family could have possibly wanted in a prosecutor.
“He did a fabulous job representing our family and our son in that case,” she told the Daily Beast. “So I have nothing but praise for what he did in that case, in our case… We have maintained contact with him through the past 20 plus years, and we have a deep respect for him”
She added, “I would call him a friend.”
With a Yale law degree, Boasberg could have gone right from school to cash in with a big Washington firm. He instead continued working homicide for rewards that cannot be measured in dollars.
Among the other cases Boasberg prosecuted was the shooting of seven young people outside the gates of the National Zoo on Easter Monday in 2000 by a 17-year-old armed with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. The shooter was sentenced to 25 years.
Boasberg also prosecuted a man who lured at least two women to secluded areas and then strangled them during sex. There was also a case in which the perpetrator donned a mask, invaded the victim’s home, and dragged him from the bed where he was sleeping with a woman and an infant before fatally shooting him.
In September of 2002, President George W. Bush nominated Boasberg to become an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
“I was so happy for him when he did make the bench, because I thought he’d be a great judge,” Trainum recalled.
Boasberg was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and he presided over more than 500 cases before President Barack Obama nominated him to become a district court judge in 2011. The confirmation process included written questions from then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Al).
Q: Do you believe judges should ever base their decisions on a desired outcome, or solely on the law and facts presented?
A: Judges should not work from a desired outcome in assessing the law and facts. Instead, they should follow the law and facts to whatever outcome they dictate.
Q: Please discuss an example of a case where you have had to set aside your own desired outcome and rule based solely on the law.
A: I have not presided over cases in which my desired outcome was contrary to the law.
Q: Do you believe a judge should consider his or her own values or policy preferences in determining what the law means?
A: No.
Boasberg was unanimously confirmed, and he stuck to the same basic legal principles. Nobody in Trumpworld grumbled when Boasberg’s understanding of the law led him to facilitate the disclosure of Hillary Clinton’s emails and to question FBI surveillance warrant affidavits in the investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election.
After the 2020 election, Boasberg presided over the proceedings involving several Jan. 6 defendants, including Marc Bru of the Proud Boys. Boasberg displayed remarkable judicial restraint during Bru’s sentencing on Jan. 25, 2024.
“This is not a court of law, this is a f---ing kangaroo court,” Bru told Boasberg. “ And you, sir, are despicable and repugnant…You’re a clown and not a judge.
“Mr. Bru, I’m happy to let you say whatever you wish,” Boasberg replied. “I haven’t interrupted you. The government hasn’t interrupted you. I have treated you with courtesy in all of these proceedings. And I would ask—you may not agree with many of the issues, but still conduct yourself civilly here.”
The proceeding ended with Boasberg sentencing Bru to six years, in keeping with the fact that he was unrepentant after being convicted of assaulting multiple police officers.
“Mr. Bru, is there a facility you wish me to recommend for the Bureau of Prisons to place you in?” Boasberg then inquired.
“Well, if you are going to continue to keep me as a hostage, I would rather go back to the area where I’m from,” Bru replied. “And the closest one would be Sheridan.”
“OK. And that’s in which state?” Boasberg asked.
“Oregon,” Bru said.
“I’m happy to do that,” the never-rattled Boasberg said.
After the 2024 election, Trump pardoned Bru along with some 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants.
Boasberg remained Boasberg. And that led him to order the Trump administration to desist when it moved to deport to El Salvador more than 200 Venezuelan migrants accused of belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua. At least two of them make a convincing case that they sought asylum in the U.S. because they had been threatened by the gang back home. Neither has a criminal record.
Trump now became the one to insult Boasberg, calling him a “radical left lunatic judge” and “a grandstander, looking for publicity” who is “sitting behind a bench and has no idea what’s going on.”
First buddy Elon Musk called for Boasberg to be impeached.
Trump’s minions continue to resist telling Boasberg exactly how and why they failed to comply with his order to halt the deportations. He has pledged to ”get to the bottom of it.”
Meanwhile, the verbal assaults on the judge continue. A simple response comes from the mother of a murder victim who found Boasberg to be a perfect emissary of justice during his days as a homicide prosecutor that earned him his place on the bench.
“I’m only going to say one thing,” Karthleen Cornils told the Daily Beast. “I think the comments are very uninformed.”
