Calls are mounting for a federal judge to withdraw his ruling after it was revealed that his spouse had personally benefited from programs President Donald Trump is attempting to eliminate. The controversy surfaced last week after U.S. District Judge John Bates blocked Trump’s efforts to remove government-run websites promoting gender ideology—part of the administration’s broader plan to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The executive order targeting “gender ideology extremism” was in the crosshairs of Bates, who wrote that the government would be unable to provide a remedy to affected individuals “during an appointment time to a patient who cannot return in the future.” Bates’ ruling is one of more than a dozen decisions that have obstructed President Trump’s early efforts to dismantle large portions of the federal bureaucracy. In response, Republicans have intensified calls to curb the power of district judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
Meanwhile, judges like Bates with ties to the agencies under review are now facing scrutiny. One investigation revealed that Bates’ wife, Carol Rhees, founded a nonprofit that receives direct funding from USAID to support relief efforts for children in Ethiopia. According to The Western Journal, the organization Hope for Children in Ethiopia has received “hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants.”
Elon Musk, who is heading up President Trump’s cost-saving efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, quickly noticed and elevated the news report. “No kidding. Yet another corrupt judge,” he wrote on X.
Bates is not the only judge facing backlash from MAGA supporters over an anti-Trump ruling. Last week, conservative activist Laura Loomer accused U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of a “conflict of interest” due to his adult daughter’s employment at the U.S. Department of Education—one of the major federal agencies that Trump and Musk have prioritized for dismantling.
The case should have prompted McConnell to recuse himself, Loomer argued on X. “On May 3rd, 2024, Judge John ‘Jack’ McConnell tagged himself at the White House during the Biden Admin where his daughter Catherine McConnell, who was appointed by Joe Biden to the Department of Education, spoke to Joe Biden’s Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, & Economic Opportunity for Hispanics,” the influencer wrote.
McConnell wrote in his latest order, “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.” That and other rulings prompted Musk to direct his fury at Bates, McConnell, and others who have delayed his work at DOGE. “There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one,” he wrote in response to his original post.
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