By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-03-29 05:11:22 | Updated at 2025-03-31 19:16:48
2 days ago
The daughter of DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg is employed by a nonprofit that received millions in government funding, opposes the Laken Riley Act — and whose founder argued that the jurist “rightly” blocked President Trump from swiftly deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Katharine Boasberg, the daughter of the federal judge who halted the Trump administration from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to send alleged Tren de Aragua members to a megaprison in El Salvador, conducts “capacity building work in public defender offices across the nation” for the nonprofit group Partners in Justice.
Partners in Justice removed Boasberg’s biography page from its website after her father was assigned to the Alien Enemies Act case.
The group’s latest tax filings show it received more than $3.3 million in government grants in 2023, which made up about half of the nonprofit’s total revenues, and public social media posts from the group’s founder demonstrate that it staunchly pro-immigrant.
“That was (rightly) quick,” Partners in Justice founder and executive director Emily Galvin-Almanza tweeted on March 15, in response to a news report on Judge Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from using the 18th-century law to deport alleged criminal illegal migrants.
Last month, Galvin-Almanza railed against the Laken Riley Act in a video on X bearing her nonprofit’s logo.
The activist slammed the law, which requires the detention of illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes, as “horrible” and “cruel” because it reduces the power judges have in cases involving criminal migrants.
One of Trump’s closest advisers, Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk, described Katharine Boasberg’s ties with the nonprofit as “concerning.”
Musk’s comment came in response to an X post alleging that Partners in Justice “provides legal advice and representation to criminal illegal aliens,” including “TDA and MS-13 members.”
The nonprofit claims its “Client Advocates do not provide legal representation or legal advice.”
“Generally, we strengthen public defender teams by embedding ‘Client Advocates’ with defenders, to help fulfill urgent needs like housing, employment, medicine, and more,” the group states on its website. “Client Advocates provide non-legal social service support and assistance in navigating court requirements.”
Partners in Justice did not respond to The Post’s inquiry about whether its client advocates work with alleged Tren de Aragua or MS-13 gang members.
Earlier this week, Trump blasted Obama-appointed Judge Boasberg in the Alien Enemies Act case as “highly conflicted,” though he did not specifically refer to the judge’s daughter’s work with Partners in Justice.
It’s unclear whether Boasberg’s daughter’s work with the group rises to the level necessary for him to recuse himself from the Trump case.
The Code of Conduct for United States Judges disqualification sections notes that judges must disqualify themselves “in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” including in cases where a child of the judge is “known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”
The Trump administration on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the federal judge’s temporary restraining order blocking the use of the Alien Enemies Act — the same day Boasberg extended his TRO until April 12.
