U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a press briefing at the White House, on the one-year mark into his second term in office, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
When Chief Judge James Boasberg entered a ruling that quashed Justice Department subpoenas on the Federal Reserve, Boasberg used plenty of President Donald Trump’s own words to fuel his language.
Criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin writes in MS NOW that Trump gave Boasberg no end of ammunition with which to destroy him.
“He quoted Trump calling Powell ‘TOO ANGRY, TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair,’” said Duncan. “He cited another post calling Powell ‘one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government.’ He noted Trump’s statement that ‘Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”’ and his threat that if the Fed did not cut rates, ‘I may have to force something.’
Duncan implied that Trump’s mouth is the fastest thing on him, and what he said helped frame the argument that undermined his case against Powell.
“That was not decoration; it was the architecture of the opinion. From page one, Judge Boasberg made clear that motive was not some side issue here. Motive was the case,” said Duncan. “The subpoenas arose from a Justice Department investigation into supposed cost overruns in the Federal Reserve’s multiyear headquarters renovation project and into Powell’s congressional testimony touching on those renovations. On paper, that was the inquiry. In reality, Judge Boasberg concluded, something else was going on.”
In his opinion, Boasberg wrote that there was “abundant evidence” that the major purpose of the subpoenas was to “harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the president or resign and make way for someone who would,” said Duncan. Meanwhile, Trump’s DOJ underlings offered “no evidence whatsoever” that Powell committed any crime other than angering Trump.
“By the end of the opinion, that judgment hardened even further,” said Duncan, with Boasberg declaring that the government had produced “essentially zero evidence” of criminality and its stated justifications looked like “a convenient pretext” for another unstated purpose.
“That is an extraordinary thing for a federal judge to say about the Department of Justice,” said Duncan, considering the DOJ has long been known as a bastion of good faith prosecution of wrongdoers and for pressing accountability.
“It was a finding that criminal process had been used as pressure rather than law enforcement,” said Duncan, and Boasberg “did not invent improper purpose.” Again, the proof lay before him in the president’s own words.
“Trump spent months attacking Powell, demanding lower rates and making his desired outcome unmistakable,” said Duncan, citing Trump saying “Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!” and “I want to get him out.” Trump also declared that he would “love to fire his ass, and demanding Powell “should resign.”
Soon after Trump’s onslaught a political appointee floated the Fed renovation issue as a path for Powell’s removal. At that point, the U.S. Attorney’s motivation was obvious.
“Judge Boasberg looked at that sequence and refused to act naïve,” said Duncan. “… That is not judicial activism. It is common sense.”
And it’s good that Boasberg called out Trump’s behavior openly.
