IV
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. RES. 241
Impeaching John James McConnell Jr., Chief Judge of the United States
District Court for the District of Rhode Island, for high crimes and
misdemeanors.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH24, 2025
Mr. C
LYDE(for himself, Mr. CRANE, Mr. GILLof Texas, Mr. GOSAR, Mr.
B
RECHEEN, Mr. HARRISof Maryland, Mr. PERRY, Mr. MILLS, Ms.
G
REENEof Georgia, and Mr. BURLISON) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
RESOLUTION
Impeaching John James McConnell Jr., Chief Judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Rhode
Island, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Resolved, That John James McConnell Jr., Chief 1
Judge of the United States District Court for the District 2
of Rhode Island, is impeached for high crimes and mis-3
demeanors and that the following articles of impeachment 4
be exhibited to the United States Senate: 5
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of 6
Representatives of the United States of America in the 7
name of itself and of the people of the United States of 8
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America, against John James McConnell Jr., Chief Judge 1
of the United States District Court for the District of 2
Rhode Island, in maintenance and support of its impeach-3
ment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors. 4
ARTICLE I: ABUSE OF POWER 5
6
Rather than adhering to the oath he took to uphold 7
the Constitution when he was sworn as Chief Judge of 8
the District Court of Rhode Island, Chief Judge John 9
James McConnell Jr. knowingly politicized and 10
weaponized his judicial position to advance his own polit-11
ical views and beliefs. 12
The Constitution provides that the House of Rep-13
resentatives ‘‘shall have the sole Power of Impeachment’’ 14
and that ‘‘civil Officers of the United States’’, including 15
Federal judges, are subject to impeachment and removal. 16
The separation of powers under the Constitution 17
grants the President broad authority over the Executive 18
Branch, including direct control and access to depart-19
ments, as part of his role in ensuring the faithful adminis-20
tration of the laws and policies of the United States. 21
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. engaged in 22
actions that prioritized his own political views and beliefs 23
over his duty of impartiality owed and deserved to litigants 24
and the public in his handling of State of New York et 25
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al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 1:25–cv–39 (JJM) 1
(PAS) (D.R.I.). 2
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. has spent his 3
entire professional career displaying his political views and 4
beliefs in his financial contributions as well as public com-5
ments. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges 6
states under Canon 5 that ‘‘A Judge Should Refrain from 7
Political Activity.’’. 8
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. served as the 9
director of the Rhode Island branch of Planned Parent-10
hood, and Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. and his wife 11
contributed almost $700,000 in political donations to 12
Democratic committees, causes, and campaigns. 13
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. has allowed 14
his personal, political opinions to influence his decisions 15
and rulings. Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. has 16
made an array of public comments clearly demonstrating 17
a bias that would warp his decision in State of New York 18
et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 1:25–cv–39 (JJM) 19
(PAS) (D.R.I.). 20
In January 2021, Chief Judge John James McCon-21
nell Jr. made public comments stating, ‘‘we fall back on 22
kind of a stereotypical comment that judges should have 23
no opinions and what not. And that’s just not true.’’. 24
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Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. made public 1
comments in January 2021, that equated President Don-2
ald J. Trump’s first term as President to the Civil War 3
and Jim Crow laws, and likened him to a tyrant. 4
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. made public 5
comments in January 2021, that when sentencing, the 6
‘‘law applies to them where they are’’ for criminals who 7
are ‘‘women, black, or transgender.’’. 8
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. made public 9
comments in January 2021, stating, ‘‘When you’re sen-10
tencing someone that you have to take a moment and real-11
ize that this you know middle class, white, male privileged 12
person needs to understand the human being who comes 13
before us that may be a woman or may be black maybe 14
be transgender maybe poor maybe rich maybe whatever 15
may had experiences but not yours and may have to walk 16
in their shoes and understand that the law applies to them 17
where they are um and then you have to apply the law 18
accordingly.’’. 19
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. made public 20
comments in January 2021, stating, ‘‘we have formed a 21
committee to look at race in our court, have we given dis-22
parate sentences between blacks and whites about hiring 23
practices.’’. 24
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Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr.’s financial 1
contributions and overt public comments clearly dem-2
onstrate a political bias that would impair his ability to 3
make a fair judgement regarding President Trump and 4
his Administration’s actions. 5
Wherefore, Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. 6
is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be 7
removed from office. 8
ARTICLE II: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST 9
10
While serving as a Chief Judge for the United States 11
District Court of Rhode Island, John James McConnell 12
Jr. had a major conflict of interest that prevented him 13
from being impartial in the matter of State of New York 14
et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 1:25–cv–39 (JJM) 15
(PAS) (D.R.I.). 16
There is substantial evidence that Chief Judge John 17
James McConnell Jr. serves on the Board of Directors for 18
the non-profit organization, Crossroads Rhode Island, and 19
previously served as the Chair of the Board from 2011 20
to 2021. 21
According to Crossroads Rhode Island’s tax filings, 22
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. has appeared 23
every year as a director of the organization since he took 24
the Federal bench. 25
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According to Crossroads Rhode Island’s tax filings 1
for 2023, its total revenue was $30,664,778, of which 2
$18,616,874 came from an array of government entities 3
including the Government of Rhode Island. 4
In fiscal year 2025, Crossroads Rhode Island has al-5
ready received $2,897,630.41 in funds from the State gov-6
ernment of Rhode Island. 7
The State Government of Rhode Island is a named 8
plaintiff in the lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump 9
and his Administration over which Chief Judge John 10
James McConnell Jr. presided. 11
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. stated that 12
‘‘All the States rely on federal funds to provide and main-13
tain vital programs and services. . . .’’ Mem. Op. at 7, 14
State of New York et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 15
1:25–cv–39 (JJM) (PAS) (D.R.I. Jan. 31, 2025) (ECF 16
No. 50). 17
There is a clear conflict of interest given that Chief 18
Judge John James McConnell Jr. presided over and made 19
a decision regarding a case which significantly impacts the 20
funding of an organization in which he serves as a director 21
of and as a fiduciary. 22
The Code of Conduct for United States Judges states 23
under Canon 2A that ‘‘A judge must avoid all impropriety 24
and appearance of impropriety. This prohibition applies 25
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to both professional and personal conduct. A judge must 1
expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny and 2
accept freely and willingly restrictions that might be 3
viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen.’’. 4
Section 455 of title 28, United States Code, requires 5
that ‘‘Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the 6
United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding 7
in which his impartiality might reasonably be ques-8
tioned.’’. 9
Moreover, section 455 of title 28, United States Code, 10
requires that judges must disqualify themselves from a 11
proceeding when ‘‘He knows that he, individually or as 12
a fiduciary, or his spouse or minor child residing in his 13
household, has a financial interest in the subject matter 14
in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other 15
interest that could be substantially affected by the out-16
come of the proceeding’’. 17
Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. had a signifi-18
cant conflict of interest in presiding over State of New 19
York et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., No. 1:25–cv–39 20
(JJM) (PAS) (D.R.I.) due to his simultaneous role as a 21
director of Crossroads Rhode Island. This conflict of inter-22
est made it impossible for him to be impartial in this pro-23
ceeding. 24
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Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. should have 1
immediately recused himself from presiding over this pro-2
ceeding, but instead continued to oversee it knowing he 3
was violating the duty of impartiality owed under Federal 4
law. 5
Wherefore, Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. 6
is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be 7
removed from office. 8
Æ
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