A federal appeals court judge quietly dismissed a judicial misconduct complaint the Justice Department filed against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, dealing a setback to the Trump administration’s effort to challenge one of its most prominent judicial critics in the fight over deportations to El Salvador.

The complaint was rejected on Dec. 19, 2025, by Jeffrey Sutton, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, although the order did not become public until this weekend. Sutton concluded that the DOJ failed to back up its allegations with evidence and fell well short of the standard required for a misconduct finding, according to a seven-page decision.