‘Radical Left Lunatic’ Judge Trump Wanted Impeached Takes up Ilhan Omar Warrant Fight

A federal judge who has become a frequent legal thorn in the side of President Donald Trump and his allies is now presiding over a fight to unseal the warrant used to search the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

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But the fight over whether to unseal the records is being overseen by Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, an Obama appointee and longtime target of Trump. In March 2025, after Boasberg temporarily blocked deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members, Trump called him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator” and called for his impeachment. Trump also accused Boasberg of bias, saying it was “virtually impossible for me to get an Honest Ruling in D.C.”

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Days after Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI conducted a raid on Omar’s home under a search warrant issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh, three separate requests were made to unseal the warrant — by the New York Times; Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group; and 14 press organizations.

Boasberg ordered the Justice Department to defend its position on keeping the warrant sealed in response to a consolidated request from the Times and 14 press organizations by Oct. 22, but he extended the deadline following a Justice Department request to wait until the search warrant was “fully executed.”

The Justice Department argued that releasing the information could compromise the integrity of the investigation.

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Boasberg’s oversight of efforts to unseal the records follows a series of decisions that have drawn criticism from Trump and his allies. In June 2025, he ordered federal agencies to preserve Signal messages exchanged by senior officials while discussing U.S. military strikes in Yemen, saying the communications could constitute federal records. During the Biden administration’s Arctic Frost investigation, he signed nondisclosure orders barring phone carriers from notifying Republican lawmakers that prosecutors had subpoenaed their records.

Boasberg also drew criticism over his sentencing of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith. Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email used in an application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser suspected of acting as a Russian agent.

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