Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday called on Congress during a Senate hearing to impeach two federal judges, making his most elaborate case yet for imposing the extraordinary sanction on a pair of closely scrutinized jurists.

Cruz acknowledged that impeaching federal judges is exceedingly rare — 15 have been impeached in history, typically for straightforward crimes like bribery — but the Texas Republican argued it was warranted for judges James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman.

‘Rarer still, until now, were the deeper offenses the framers feared most — judges who, without necessarily breaking a criminal statute, violate the public trust, subvert the constitutional order or wield their office in ways that injure society itself,’ Cruz said. ‘That is why, throughout history, Congress recognized that impeachable misconduct need not be criminal.’

Cruz, a Senate Judiciary Committee member with an extensive legal background, said the House needed to initiate impeachment proceedings over controversial gag orders Boasberg signed in 2023 and a sentence Boardman handed down last year in the case of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s attempted assassin.

Impeachment proceedings must be initiated in the House and typically run through the House Judiciary Committee.

Russell Dye, a spokesman for the GOP-led committee, said ‘everything is on the table’ when asked if Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was open to the idea. If the House were to vote in favor of impeachment, it would then advance to the Senate. Two-thirds of senators would need to vote to convict the judges and remove them, a highly improbable scenario because the vote would require some support from Democrats.

Cruz’s counterpart at the hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., defended the judges and accused Republicans of threatening impeachment as an effort to intimidate the judiciary because it routinely issues adverse rulings against the Trump administration.

‘There was a time when I’d have hoped a Senate Judiciary subcommittee would not be roped into a scheme to amplify pressure and threats against a sitting federal judge,’ Whitehouse said. ‘But here we are.’

In the case of Boardman, a Biden appointee, the judge sentenced Sophie Roske, who previously went by Nicholas Roske, to eight years in prison after the Department of Justice sought a 30-year sentence. Roske pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Kavanaugh. Boardman said she factored into her sentence that Roske identified as transgender and therefore faced unique adversity.

Cruz argued Democrats’ concerns about threats that judges have faced for ruling against President Donald Trump fell on deaf ears, in his view, because they did not speak out about Boardman’s leniency toward Roske.

‘My Democrat colleagues on this committee do not get to give great speeches about how opposed they are to violence against the judiciary, and, at the same time, cheer on a judge saying, ‘Well, if you attempt to murder a Supreme Court justice, and you happen to be transgender, not a problem. We’re going to deviate downward by more than two decades,” Cruz said.

In the case of Boasberg, former special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed several Republican Congress members’ phone records while conducting an investigation into the 2020 election and Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Smith sought gag orders so that the senators would not immediately be notified about the subpoenas, and Boasberg authorized those orders.

Prosecutors seeking gag orders is not unusual, but senators have layers of protection from prosecution under the Constitution. The targeted Republicans have decried the subpoenas, saying their rights were violated.

Smith and an official representing the federal courts have both said that Boasberg was not notified that the subpoenas and gag orders were related to members of Congress.

Rob Luther, a law professor at George Mason University, was a witness for Republicans at the hearing and said Boasberg still should not have signed the gag orders without knowing who they applied to. Luther cited stipulations included in the orders.

‘One must ask on what basis Judge Boasberg found that the disclosure of subpoenas would result in destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and cause serious jeopardy to the investigation, end quote,’ Luther said. ‘Did Judge Boasberg merely rubber stamp the requested gag order, or was he willfully blind?’

Smith’s actions also aligned with a DOJ policy at the time that did not require the special counsel to alert the court that the subpoenas targeted senators, a point raised by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., during the hearing. Luther said the policy did not matter.

‘DOJ policy does not supplant federal law,’ he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump has approved a Russian sanctions bill designed to pressure Moscow to end its war with Ukraine.

Graham revealed the development in a post on X, describing it as a pivotal shift in the U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

‘After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator Blumenthal and many others,’ Graham said. 

‘This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent.’

According to the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, the bipartisan legislation is designed to grant Trump sweeping, almost unprecedented, authority to economically isolate Russia and penalize major global economies that continue to trade with Moscow and finance its war against Ukraine.

Most notably, the bill would require the United States to impose a 500% tariff on all goods imported from any country that continues to purchase Russian oil, petroleum products or uranium. The measure would effectively squeeze Russia financially while deterring foreign governments from undermining U.S. sanctions.

‘This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine,’ Graham said.

‘This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine.’

Graham said voting could take place as early as next week and that he is looking forward to a strong bipartisan vote.

The move on the Russian sanctions bill follows another sharp escalation in America’s clampdown on Moscow. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. forces reportedly seized an oil tanker attempting to transport sanctioned Venezuelan oil to Russia.

Graham publicly celebrated the seizure in another post on X, describing it as part of a broader winning streak of U.S. intervention aimed at Venezuela and Cuba. 

In the post, he also took aim at critics such as Sen. Rand Paul, who has opposed the bill, arguing that it would damage America’s trade relations with much of the world.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

The seizure of a Russian-linked oil tanker in the North Atlantic has highlighted ‘worry’ among NATO and Nordic-Baltic governments over dark fleet vessels and the type of crews onboard, according to a maritime intelligence analyst.

U.S. military and Coast Guard personnel boarded the Marinera between Iceland and the U.K. Wednesday as it operated under deceptive shipping practices, including flying a false flag and violating sanctions.

According to Reuters, Russian authorities demanded the humane treatment and repatriation of the crew members.

Windward maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann claimed the Marinera’s ownership had just been transferred to Burevestmarin LLC, a Russian company.

‘We do not know the status of these sailors and seafarers, who are Russian nationals,’ Wiese Bockmann told Fox News Digital. ‘That lack of clarity is common with dark fleet tankers.

‘The Marinera did have its ownership transferred to a newly formed Russian company, with the registered owner, ship manager and commercial manager being Burevestmarin LLC.’

She also suggested NATO and the Nordic-Baltic 8+ group of governments have been ‘worried’ about sanctioned oil tankers with unauthorized personnel onboard, including ‘armed guards.’

‘Increasingly, and I know the Nordic Baltic 8+ governments are worried about the fact that you are having unauthorized people also on board, also known as armed guards,’ Wiese Bockmann said. ‘But it is highly irregular.

‘Armed guards are rarely seen and typically used on ships that are transiting the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea and are therefore assessed as at risk from attack by Houthis or pirates,’ she added.

After the seizure, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected Russian demands for special treatment of the Marinera’s crew during her regular briefing Wednesday.

‘This was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that had transported sanctioned oil,’ Leavitt said.

‘The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag, and it had a judicial seizure order. And that’s why the crew will be subject to prosecution.’

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was ‘closely following’ the situation, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

Wiese Bockmann noted that dark fleet crews are often multinational, typically involving a Russian master with Chinese, Indian or Filipino crew members.

‘There is a blurring of commercial and military shipping around the dark fleet,’ she said. ‘What we’re seeing now is something that has really only emerged in the last six or seven months.’

European authorities have also begun holding crews accountable, particularly when captains are ‘facilitating dangerous deceptive shipping practices, such as spoofing and going dark,’ she explained.

‘The EU recently sanctioned the captain of a tanker who refused orders from the Estonian navy (Jaguar) to be stopped for inspection last May. And the French charged a captain over his refusal to comply with orders and failure to justify a flag’s nationality after authorities intercepted a dark fleet tanker in the Atlantic last October,’ Wiese Bockmann added.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, a second vessel, the M. Sophia, was also boarded in international waters near the Caribbean while en route to Venezuela.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. to withdraw from 66 international organizations, ordering executive departments and agencies to cease participation in and funding of entities the administration says no longer serve U.S. interests.

The memorandum follows a State Department review ordered earlier this year under Executive Order 14199 and applies to 35 non-United Nations organizations and 31 United Nations entities, according to the White House.

In the memorandum, Trump said he reviewed Secretary Rubio’s findings and determined it is ‘contrary to the interests of the U.S. to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support’ to the listed organizations.

The order directs all executive departments and agencies to take immediate steps to effectuate the withdrawals as soon as possible. For United Nations entities, withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to the extent permitted by law.

The administration framed the move as part of Trump’s broader ‘America First’ agenda aimed at restoring American sovereignty and ending taxpayer support for organizations it views as wasteful, ineffective or contrary to U.S. interests. 

Review of additional international organizations remains ongoing, according to the White House.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the withdrawals fulfill a key commitment of Trump’s presidency.

‘Today, President Trump announced the U.S. is leaving 66 anti-American, useless, or wasteful international organizations,’ Rubio said in a post on X. ‘Review of additional international organizations remains ongoing.’

Rubio said the administration concluded the institutions were ‘redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.’

‘It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it,’ Rubio said. ‘The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.’

The list includes organizations involved in areas such as climate, energy, development, governance, migration and gender policy, according to the White House. The White House published the full list alongside the order.

Rubio said the withdrawals reflect a shift in how the administration views international engagement.

‘We will not continue expending resources, diplomatic capital, and the legitimizing weight of our participation in institutions that are irrelevant to or in conflict with our interests,’ Rubio said. ‘We seek cooperation where it serves our people and will stand firm where it does not.’

The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday condemned President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw the U.S. from United Nations-linked climate initiatives.

Gore claimed in a post on X that ‘the most significant challenge of our lifetimes’ is ‘the climate crisis.’ 

‘The ongoing work of the IPCC, UNFCCC, and other global institutions remains essential to safeguarding humanity’s future,’ he asserted, referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

‘By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump Administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science, and sowing distrust around the world,’ he wrote.

Trump issued a memorandum ordering U.S. withdrawal from the two initiatives that Gore mentioned as well as scads of other entities.

The president’s memorandum lists the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change under a grouping of ‘Non-United Nations Organizations.’ But the website ipcc.ch states, ‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.’

In the memorandum, the president declared that he has ‘determined that it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support to the organizations listed in section 2 of this memorandum.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, ‘As this list begins to demonstrate, what started as a pragmatic framework of international organizations for peace and cooperation has morphed into a sprawling architecture of global governance, often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests.’

Gore, who served as vice president alongside Democratic President Bill Clinton, lost the 2000 presidential contest to Republican George W. Bush.