New judge will oversee grand jury inquiries on Trump
Jurist appointed by Bush and Obama inherits politically loaded investigations.
The position is key as probes continue into Trump’s retention of classified records and his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
A new judge is poised to assume oversight of grand jury investigations concerning former President Trump, including the ongoing probe into classified documents found at his Florida estate.
U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg was sworn in Friday as chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C. That role will give him oversight of grand jury matters as well as sealed disputes that have surfaced in probes involving Trump.
Boasberg was appointed to the court by President Obama after being named by President George W. Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
He is replacing the federal district court’s outgoing chief judge, Beryl Howell, also an Obama appointee, who served in the top job during high-profile inquiries including an earlier Justice Department investigation into links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The chief judge position rotates on a seven-year basis.
The position is important at a time when special
counsel Jack Smith is conducting grand jury investigations into Trump’s retention of hundreds of classified documents at Mar-aLago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and into efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection
at the U.S. Capitol.
The investigations have involved multiple sealed disputes, including a current fight over whether prosecutors can secure additional grand jury testimony from Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran.
Corcoran drafted a statement last year saying a “diligent
search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago, but FBI agents found roughly 100 more documents with classified markings when they searched the home with a warrant weeks later.
Corcoran had invoked attorney-client privilege during an appearance before
the grand jury weeks ago. Prosecutors invoked an exception to that privilege, arguing before Howell that the lawyer’s services were being used in furtherance of a crime and that more testimony was needed.
Howell issued her order granting at least some additional testimony before the end of her tenure Friday.
Separately, former Vice President Mike Pence has said he will challenge a grand jury subpoena to testify in the special counsel’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack.
Pence has argued that because he was serving in his role as Senate president that day as he presided over a joint session of Congress to certify the election results, he is protected from being forced to address his actions under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which shields members of Congress.
Boasberg served in the past as presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and in that role raised concerns to the FBI after a Justice Department watchdog report identified serious errors and omissions in surveillance applications filed during the Russia investigation.