A Look At The Judge Who Blocked Trump's Deportations And Is Now Facing Calls For Impeachment

The federal judge who ruled against Donald Trump's deportation plans and is now facing calls for his impeachment is no stranger to politically fraught cases - including ones involving the president.

In his 14 years on the federal bench, James "Jeb" Boasberg has resolved secret grand jury disputes that arose during the special counsel investigations into Trump, oversaw improvements after the Trump-Russia investigation in how the Justice Department conducts national security surveillance and handled his share of sentencings for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A former homicide prosecutor in the nation's capital who played basketball at Yale University, where he also earned his law degree, Boasberg has cultivated a reputation among colleagues as a principled jurist with bipartisan respect - he was appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama but was named a decade earlier to a seat on the D.C. Superior Court by President George W. Bush.

As a nominee for the federal court, Boasberg was asked by then- Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions , who would later go on to become attorney general during Trump's first term, if he believed judges should base their decisions on a desired outcome or solely on the law and facts.

"Judges should not work from a desired outcome in assessing the law and facts," Boasberg wrote. "Instead, they should follow the law and facts to whatever outcome they dictate."