A federal judge in Rhode Island appointed by President Donald Trump is facing allegations that she made false and politically motivated attacks against Department of Justice attorneys before referring them for possible discipline.

The conservative Center to Advance Security in America filed a complaint Tuesday with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy, the Washington Examiner reported.

The complaint asks the court to investigate McElroy over allegations of an improper and partisan campaign against personnel from the Trump administration's DOJ who appeared before her court.

"CASA is filing a judicial complaint against the unprofessional Rhode Island District Court Judge Mary McElroy for her inappropriate and inaccurate excoriations she made on the record against attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice," Curtis Schube, the group's director of research and policy, said in a statement accompanying the filing, according to the Examiner.

"Not only did McElroy make these damaging and false statements, but she followed them up with a vindictive referral of these DOJ attorneys to the District of Rhode Island's disciplinary committee," Schube added.

The complaint centers on McElroy's May ruling quashing a DOJ subpoena seeking records from Rhode Island Hospital related to transgender drugs and procedures provided to minors. In that decision, McElroy accused DOJ attorneys of misleading courts and acting in bad faith, and later referred them to the district court's disciplinary committee.

McElroy wrote that the DOJ had "proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case" and accused the department of seeking a forum "friendly to its political positions."

CASA argues those accusations were based on a misreading of the record and reflected political hostility toward the Trump administration's investigation.

The filing alleges McElroy's conduct violated multiple provisions of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, including canons requiring judges to uphold the integrity of the judiciary, avoid the appearance of impropriety, and perform their duties fairly and impartially.

Although McElroy was formally nominated by Trump in 2018, she had previously been nominated to the same judgeship by Barack Obama in 2015 but never received a full Senate vote.

Her confirmation during Trump's first term came after Rhode Island's Democratic senators continued backing her candidacy.

Judicial misconduct complaints against federal judges are reviewed through an administrative process established by Congress. The 1st Circuit can dismiss the complaint, order further investigation, or impose limited disciplinary measures, but it cannot remove McElroy from office. Federal judges hold lifetime appointments and can be removed only through impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate.

In U.S. history, the House has impeached 15 federal judges. Eight were convicted by the Senate, four were acquitted and three resigned before an outcome at trial.

The last came in 2010, when U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous of the Eastern District of Louisiana, a Clinton appointee, was convicted by the Senate and removed from office for accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury.