Jeb Boasberg's Selective Sympathies

While decrying the fate of Venezuelan illegals deported to a prison in El Salvador, Jeb Boasberg demonstrated no such concern over the dozens of Trump supporters he sent to federal prison over Jan 6.

During a 2022 sentencing hearing for a man from Pennsylvania who had pleaded guilty to the petty offense of “parading” in the Capitol on January 6, D.C. Judge James Boasberg said he believed all participants involved in the four-hour protest should spend at least some time in federal prison.

“There is a strong argument that anybody who was there that day deserves jail,” Boasberg told Gary Edwards, a 68-year-old with no criminal record, before sentencing him to probation and a fine.

The mercy Boasberg offered Edwards, however, was an outlier; the Obama appointee sent the overwhelming majority of J6ers before him, including those convicted of low-level misdemeanors, to jail. Of the 70 J6 cases Boasberg handled, a review of the full January 6 sentencing record shows he ordered 55 defendants to prison, some for several years, for their role in what Boasberg routinely describes as an “insurrection.”

At the same time, Boasberg demonstrated no concern for how supporters of Donald Trump would fare at some of the toughest federal penitentiaries in the country. In a 2024 sentencing hearing before Boasberg, Ryan Zink, a man from Texas convicted of nonviolent offenses, described the torment he had endured while incarcerated at the D.C. gulag for nearly three months following his arrest.

Zink told Boasberg his cell was “covered in urine and feces with no working plumbing,” and accused guards of adding chemicals to his food. “I was denied basic necessities such as being able to shower, being seen by medical professionals…or even the opportunity to possess a Bible.” (These were common complaints by J6ers in the gulag.)

Boasberg appeared unmoved, calling Zink’s time in prison “not pleasant.”

What Exactly Does He Think Happens in US Prisons?

While Boasberg remorselessly sent his fellow countrymen into dangerous institutions, the chief judge of the D.C. district court apparently is losing much-needed beauty sleep over the possible mistreatment of Venezuelans illegals sent to an El Salvadoran prison by the Trump administration. On March 15, Boasberg entered two temporary restraining orders prohibiting the deportation of Venezuelans subject to the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, which initiated the immediate removal of Tren de Aragua gang members here illegally.

Desperate to rescue the suspected gang bangers from the hellscape awaiting them in the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, Boasberg went so far as to demand the return of planes headed toward Central America carrying illegals subject to the AEA.

The Trump Department of Justice is contesting his orders. Last week, the D.C. appellate court refused to lift Boasberg’s ban, which he recently extended by two more weeks; the matter is now before the Supreme Court.

In the interim, Boasberg is reminding the Trump administration of the treacherous conditions of El Salvadoran jails—as if Trump officials didn’t already know. Individuals held in the notorious prison system, Boasberg lamented in a lengthy opinion on March 24, endure “poor living conditions…and are often disciplined through beatings and humiliation.” He continued to complain how inmates “are rarely allowed to leave their cells, have no regular access to drinking water or adequate food, sleep standing up because of overcrowding, and are held in cells where they do not see sunlight for days.”

The illegal Venezuelans represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in the lawsuit “have shown that they have a high likelihood of suffering significant harm if the [Alien Enemies Act] is allowed to apply to them,” Boasberg wrote in denying the administration’s motion to put a hold on his own orders as the case advances in the higher courts. “Needless to say, the risk of torture, beatings, and even death clearly and unequivocally supports a finding of irreparable harm.”

Boasberg’s words are now evidence in a separate lawsuit claiming the Trump administration unlawfully sent a man here illegally from El Salvador back to that country due to his suspected ties to MS-13.

J6er: ‘Come tell us again about your concern for the Venezuelan gang banger.’

The judge’s sympathies for illegal immigrants comes as a shock to American citizens imprisoned by him. Sandra Weyer, a 60-year-old from Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 14 months in prison by Boasberg in late 2023. Weyer, whose most serious conviction was the obstruction felony overturned by the Supreme Court last year, spent a torturous few months in the Federal Detention Center of Philadelphia. Her attorney asked Boasberg to release Weyer pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the obstruction count and because of the torment she was enduring. “The section of the facility to which she has been assigned is experiencing a rodent infestation,” defense attorney Nicholas Smith wrote in an emergency motion for release. “Regularly, Weyer finds mice and insects in her bedding. Maggots and weevils are a common sight in the food hall." Smith told Boasberg his client had not eaten for 40 hours. (In 2023, an inmate of the facility was found dead in his cell following an altercation with another inmate.)

Boasberg granted Weyer’s release based on the likelihood the Supreme Court would overturn how the Biden DOJ applied the corporate fraud obstruction statue in hundreds of J6 cases—the court did exactly that in the 6-3 Fischer opinion a few months later—not on Weyer’s near-starvation condition.

Weyer, who lost her husband to cancer shortly after she was released, is outraged by Boasberg’s sudden attack of conscience.

“Judge Boasberg shows no compassion for American citizens incarcerated that are deprived of clean drinking water and regular food,” Weyer told me in a text. “He certainly isn't concerned that Americans suffer irreparable damages! Is he not aware of the fact that federal prisons in the United States also have a problem with scabies, herpes, and other transmissible diseases? Boasberg wants to talk about poor sanitary conditions in Salvadoran prisons but turns a blind eye to what is happening to American citizens in our own country. I would like to see him spend a week in FDC Philadelphia with rats, cockroaches, and maggots in the food that is served. Inmates in America are often beaten and raped. They are deprived of sunlight. Breathe in that black mold everyday Judge Boasberg then come tell us again about your concern for the Venezuelan gang banger.”

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday so Boasberg can continue his attempt to prove the Trump administration defied his orders. Maybe he’s not done trying to throw Americans in prison after all.