Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) announced Wednesday that he is drafting articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. for obstructing Donald Trump.
McConnell issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) last month to stop a widespread funding freeze to various programs nationwide. A federal appeals court has since denied the Trump administration’s request to pause McConnell’s ruling.
In a subsequent ruling on Monday, McConnell said that the Trump administration has not complied with the TRO and ordered agencies to immediately restore any paused or withheld dollars during continuing legal proceedings, according to CBS.
On Wednesday, Clyde suggested that McConnell’s rulings are tantamount to treason and thus warrants his removal from the bench.
“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. He’s a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending,” he wrote. “We must end this abusive overreach. Stay tuned.”
Clyde’s announcement came hours after Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that there “needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments.”
Musk has been fuming since a federal judge blocked his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive taxpayer data at the Treasury Department.
Only 15 federal judges have ever been impeached, and eight have been convicted by the Senate.
The last time a judge was successfully impeached by the House and convicted by a two-thirds majority in the Senate was Judge Thomas Porteous in 2010.
Porteous was convicted on all four charges of engaging in a pattern of conduct incompatible with serving as a federal judge, engaging in a longstanding pattern of corrupt conduct, knowingly and intentionally making false statements under penalty of perjury, and knowingly making material false statements about his past to both the Senate and the FBI to obtain a federal judgeship.
