The far-left federal judge who blocked President Donald Trump’s federal freeze on grants is on the board of directors of a nonprofit that has collected $128 million in taxpayer money during the nearly two decades years the judge has been on the board.
John McConnell, chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island and appointed by former President Barack Obama, had to have known the outfit, Crossroads Rhode Island, would benefit from his ruling, America First Legal reported in a long X thread.
That means the judge has trespassed the federal law and the canon of judicial ethics by not recusing himself from the case, which began when Blue States and Washington, D.C., sued to stop the freeze.
The Office of Management Budget froze spending on January 27, pursuant to several of Trump’s executive orders.
“In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, OMB acting director:
Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities.…
The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.
To implement Trump’s orders, notably those ending diversity, equity, and inclusion, Vaeth paused federal spending on such grants.
“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” the order said.
The Ruling
That didn’t sit well with far-left Blue States, which sued to stop the order. In Rhode Island, they found a very, very friendly judge. That would be McConnell.
On January 31, he issued a temporary restraining order that ordered Trump to resume the waste, fraud, and abuse.
“All the States rely on federal funds to provide and maintain vital programs and services and have introduced evidence that the withholding of federal funds will cause severe disruption in their ability to administer such vital services — even if it is for a brief time,” McConnell ruled.
McConnell wrote that state programs ranging from “highway planning and construction, childcare, veteran nursing care funding, special education grants, and state health departments, who receive billions of dollars to run programs that maintain functional health systems,” would suffer terribly.
McConnell ruled after Trump rescinded the order, and McConnell wrote that “the evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB Directive was in name-only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts.”
On February 10, McConnell ruled that the administration still had not complied with his order. The administration must “immediately end any federal funding pause,” he wrote.
Big Bucks for the Judge’s Pet Project
As AFL reported, however, McConnell has served on the board of anti-homelessness Crossroads Rhode Island for 18 years, and still serves as “chairman emeritus.”
“AFL’s review of required disclosure forms reveals that since Judge McConnell became Vice Chair of the Board of Crossroads Rhode Island in 2009, the organization has received over $117.6 million in government funding (accounting to the end of 2023),” AFL explained X:
This year, Rhode Island government records show that Crossroads Rhode Island has already received just under $2.9 million in FY2025 to provide various programs and services to Rhode Island, one of the plaintiffs.
The outfit’s total take since McConnell joined the board: $128 million.
Yet when “McConnell ruled against the Trump Administration and required federal taxpayers to continue funding the State of Rhode Island, it seems that he also required continued funding for his pet ‘non-profit,’” AFL reported.
Federal law, AFL noted, requires a judge to recuse himself from a case if his impartiality “might reasonably be questioned.” As well, the law “requires judges to disqualify themselves when they are a fiduciary or have any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.” So also does Canon 2A of the federal Code Of Judicial Ethics.
And as a board member of Crossroads, McConnell had a fiduciary responsibility to the non-profit, apropos of Rhode Island law. But he also has responsibilities as a judge.
Continued AFL:
If, as the documents suggest, Judge McConnell has been a leader of Crossroads Rhode Island, and if, as the documents also suggest, he knew or should have known that Crossroads Rhode Island would stand to benefit from his ruling against the federal taxpayers, then it seems he should have fully disclosed his entanglement with this federally funded organization up front and recused himself from the matter.
He did not do these things.
Now, it appears he should immediately vacate his TRO and swiftly recuse himself from this case without delay to comply with his ethical obligations.
Facing Impeachment
A crackpot leftist, McConnell has also called Trump a “tyrant,” reported Natalie Winters, co-host of Steve Bannons’ War Room podcast. Winters posted video of McConnell’s deranged rant.
As The New American’s Veronika Kyrylenko reported today, McConnell and other far-left judges face impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Reposting Winters, GOP Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia wrote that he would draft articles of impeachment against the far-left McConnell:
He’s a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending,” Clyde wrote. “We must end this abusive overreach. Stay tuned.
