Republicans move to impeach judges who blocked Trump

• Trump further raised the temperature this week by saying at an Oval Office news briefing with DOGE head Elon Musk: "Maybe we have to look at the judges because I think that's a very serious violation."
• Vice President J.D. Vance has also suggested that federal judges have been overstepping their authority and "aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."

Driving the news: Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) is working on articles of impeachment against U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who ordered the administration to lift its federal spending freeze, Clyde's office confirmed to Axios.

• In a post on X this week, Clyde called McConnell a "partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump's funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending."
• Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) has said he plans to introduce articles of impeachment against District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer, who blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury records, on similar grounds.

• The Rhode Island and New York Southern District Courts — McConnell's and Engelmayer's venues, respectively — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Between the lines: Clyde and Crane would need majorities in the House to impeach the two judges and and two-thirds majorities in the Senate to convict them. There are only 53 Senate Republicans.

• Judicial impeachments are rare and are usually brought for issues like corruption, perjury or seriously illicit personal conduct.
• The last successful impeachment of a federal court judge was in 2010 and concerned false financial disclosures.