'Thuggery': Musk Backs GOP Push to Impeach Judge Who Blocked Trump Funding Freeze
One Democratic senator ripped the mega-billionaire's attacks on the judiciary, saying such behavior should not be tolerated in "rule-of-law countries."
Unelected shadow government leader Elon Musk ramped up his attack on the U.S. judiciary on Thursday by expressing support for a Republican impeachment effort targeting one of the federal judges who blocked the Trump administration's destructive funding freeze.
"Yes," Musk wrote on his social media platform in response to a post from Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who announced Wednesday that he is drafting articles of impeachment against Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
Musk, the world's richest man and the leader of a commission that President Donald Trump has granted sweeping power to assail federal agencies, has repeatedly lashed out at U.S. judges in recent days as they've issued orders hindering his cronies' access to key government payment systems and data.
"Impeach this activist posing as a judge!" Musk wrote on Wednesday, referring to McConnell. "Such a person does great discredit to the American justice system."
Earlier this week, McConnell demanded that the Trump administration comply with his earlier order to halt the federal funding freeze amid mounting evidence that administration officials are ignoring the judge's instructions.
NBC News reported earlier this week that "a senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency instructed subordinates to freeze funding for a wide array of grant programs Monday, just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration—for the second time—to stop such pauses."
Musk has made clear that he's not singling out McConnell. "There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments," the mega-billionaire wrote Wednesday.
"The judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, just like Congress and the presidency. When Musk and his cronies do illegal things, it's their JOB to step in and block them."
Other Trump administration officials, and Trump himself, have similarly decried recent interventions by federal courts.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lamented during a briefing Wednesday that the Trump administration has been hit with "at least 12 injunctions" over the past two weeks as rights groups and Democratic attorneys general have mobilized against the president's blatantly lawless executive orders.
Reuters noted that Musk's call for a "wave of judicial impeachments" came "a day after federal courts forced U.S. agencies to restore health-related websites taken down in response to one of Trump's executive orders and declined to lift a judge's order barring the administration from freezing federal funding."
"Those and other legal setbacks have prompted Trump, key members of his administration, and Musk to attack judges who have blocked major pieces of his agenda, in some cases arguing judges have no power to intrude on the president's authority," the outlet added.
In a social media post earlier this week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) slammed Musk's "thuggery toward judges," adding that such attacks are unacceptable in "rule-of-law countries."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) added that "Musk may get to be a dictator at Tesla," but "he doesn't get to be one in Washington."
"The judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, just like Congress and the presidency," Van Hollen wrote. "When Musk and his cronies do illegal things, it's their JOB to step in and block them."
