[This is really the bottom line. Even Julie Kelly didn't address this point this morning on Bannon.]
Boasberg’s Senate Spying Gag Order Violated Federal Law
Oct 31, 2025 (excerpt)
Judge James Boasberg, the lawfare fanatic serving as the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for D.C., issued an order intended to conceal the Biden administration’s attempted seizure of Sen. Ted Cruz’s phone records. In doing so, it appears he likely violated federal law.
According to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as part of the Biden administration’s “Arctic Frost” inquiry dead set on targeting Republicans in battleground states, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the get-Trump lawfare for years, “secretly obtained phone record data from at least eight senators and one congressman.”
Smith also sought to obtain Cruz’s phone records from AT&T, which ultimately declined to hand over the records.
The Biden Department of Justice tried to seize Cruz’s “cell phone communications,” according to the senator, and Boasberg signed off on a “nondisclosure” gag order on AT&T that would have kept the telecommunications company from notifying Cruz of the seizure for at least a year. According to Boasberg’s order, obtained by Cruz, “The court finds reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in destruction of, or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation.”
There is “precisely zero evidence to conclude that I am likely to destroy or tamper with evidence or to intimidate potential witnesses,” Cruz said. “Zero evidentiary basis for that. This order is an abuse of power. This order is a weaponized legal system.”
But aside from the bogus basis for the gag order, Boasberg actually appears to have violated federal law in issuing the order in the first place.
“If this phone was an official phone (I suspect it was), then this was likely in violation of 2 U.S.C. 6628. If Smith or Boasberg violated that statute, it’s a very serious problem that probably justifies a bar investigation and could predicate an impeachment inquiry,” Mike Fragoso, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, noted.
The law reads as follows:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law or rule of civil or criminal procedure, the Office of the SAA [Senate Sergeant at Arms], any officer, employee, or agent of the Office of the SAA, and any provider for a Senate office that is providing services to or used by a Senate office shall not be barred, through operation of any court order or any statutory provision, from notifying the Senate office of any legal process seeking disclosure of Senate data of the Senate office that is transmitted, processed, or stored (whether temporarily or otherwise) through the use of an electronic system established, maintained, or operated, or the use of electronic services provided, in whole or in part by the Office of the SAA, the officer, employee, or agent of the Office of the SAA, or the provider for a Senate office.
That law bans gag orders on the collection of Senate data and communications, and requires notice to the Senate to give it the opportunity to stop any subpoenas on separation of powers grounds. The statute also requires that courts stop those subpoenas if the Senate opposes them.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/31/boasbergs-senate-spying-gag-order-violated-federal-law/