Trump judge appears to have severe conflict of interest

When Donald Trump issues his funding freeze, we all knew it would get challenged and we all knew the case would depend on the luck of the draw.

Well, Trump drew badly, having Judge John McConnell, a Barack Obama-appointed judge, assigned to the case.

The ruling by McConnell was not surprising considering his ideology, but further digging shows that he has a lot more at stake than just protecting Democrat interests.

Self-Serving

McConnell is presiding over one of the challenges against Trump’s freeze in Rhode Island, ruling against Trump and ordering the money to be disbursed.

A second case is underway in DC, with Judge Loren AliKhan presiding, a Biden appointee, so we know how that will go as well.

McConnell, however, is directly impacted by the freeze, serving in leadership for the Crossroads Rhode Island non-profit.

This organization reportedly receives about $18 million of its $31 million budget from federal funding, according to its 2023 filings.

Since McConnell has been on the board of directors, the organization has received more than $128 million from federal and state funding, so without this money, the organization likely goes belly up. That is what we call a conflict of interest.

Through 2023, the CEO of Crossroads was Karen Santilli, who was pulling down a tidy $374,000 per  year salary, so having that taxpayer money in the coffers is a great way to create some high-paying jobs.

This goes beyond McConnell, as the money trail shows just how dastardly these groups can be in funding leftist causes.

In this case, some of the funding went to the Refugee Dream Center, the Providence Public Library, and Project Weber, which is an “overdose prevention center.”

This is the type of nonsense that DOGE was brought in to investigate and cut, as at least two of these causes are leftist charities, while federal tax dollars should not fund the library. That should solely be on state and local funding.

The bottom line here is that McConnell should have recused himself due to his involvement with Crossroads, but he ignored the law in not doing so.

The Trump administration is appealing his ruling, and based on the information I see here, at the very least, Trump has a great case to have McConnell tossed to the case, hopefully getting a conservative judge in the redraw.

Having said that, we all know how this system works, so I would be surprised if it ever gets to the point that McConnell is removed from the case. If this goes before another liberal judge, I have zero doubt Trump would lose the case. This is why every one of these challenged will wind up before the Supreme Court before all is said and done.