U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche
The Department of Justice is going after a long list of federal judges in Minnesota who spoke to reporters about their complaints concerning the immigration crackdowns conducted by the administration of President Donald Trump – while some of those cases were pending before them in court.
The DOJ confirmed on Wednesday that it had obtained indictments against another 10 foreign nationals accused of election-related offenses in Minnesota. But the bigger announcement was the judicial misconduct complaint filed against most of the federal judges on the bench in Minnesota.
Attorney General Todd Blanche filed the complaint with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the decisions by multiple judges to complain to the New York Times about Trump’s immigration agenda.
He accused the judges of discussing pending cases and displaying bias against the Department of Homeland Security, calling for their recusal from civil and criminal cases involving the agency.
WND had reported several weeks ago when the problem was highlighted by the Article II Project and its founder, Mike Davis, who turned in a complaint naming two of the judges.
At that time, the claims came against Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim, both federal judges in Minnesota.
Davis urged the Eighth Circuit Judicial Council to investigate and remove the judges for their actions.
“The Article III Project just filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Minnesota federal judges who are conspiring to sabotage the President’s immigration enforcement—and bragging about it to the New York Times,” Davis explained.
The complaint notes, “Senior United States District Judges Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota made statements that reasonably call into question their impartiality as to the administration, a party that regularly appears before them. […] Canon 2A of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges dictates that ‘[a] judge should . . . act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.’ […] An investigation by the Judicial Council is warranted, and Judges Schiltz and Tunheim should retract the statements to correct the appearance of impartiality that has arisen as a result of interviews that never should have occurred, and they should be removed from immigration-related cases going forward.”
WorldNetDaily had reported that several federal judges in Minnesota, in an article that appeared in the New York Times Sept. 17, admitted coordinating their immigration case decisions.
The result is that there now are “questions over whether the judges were colluding” on responses to Trump administration immigration policies, or “simply sharing expertise.”
Now the DOJ has entered the dispute.
The concerns are the interviews judges gave the publication about Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and its crackdown on illegal aliens, and their criminal records.
Blanche charged one former judge gave a 90-minute interview and six other judges spoke with the newspaper.
In those exchanges, Schiltz accused the administration of disregarding court orders. But he claimed that was from incompetence rather than deliberate defiance.
“Another judge questioned whether immigration officers were actually arresting dangerous criminals,” the report charged.
Blanche cited the judges’ ethical obligations, to which they submit when they are handed their highly paid, lifetime appointments.
Blanche said a process has been started: “We’ve asked them to investigate, and then we will make decisions.”
He did confirm more than 90 people have been charged with voter-related fraud offenses since Trump returned to office, including 50 noncitizens over recent days.
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
