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‘Grave Moral Evil’: Republicans Are Moving to Impeach Judges Over Anti-DOGE Rulings
Far-right House Republicans are pushing to impeach federal judges, alleging “high crimes and misdemeanors” in response to rulings that opposed actions by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). One congressman denounced a judge as a “predator” and a “radical anti-LGBTQ activist,” while another argued that blocking DOGE reflected bias against Trump voters. A third asserted that Congress has the “authority to impeach judges to defend the will of the people.”
Courthouse News reporter Benjamin S. Weiss notes that three federal judges have been targeted for impeachment by multiple members of Congress.
Senior U.S. District Judge John Bates
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) made unsubstantiated accusations against Senior Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee serving on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Bates was also appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve on the FISA Court and to serve as the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
READ MORE: ‘Axis of Evil’: U.S. Slammed for Voting with Russia, North Korea Against Ukraine at UN
“I just formally introduced articles of impeachment against RADICAL LGBTQ ACTIVIST U.S. District Judge John Bates. His attempt to block President Trump’s order to remove webpages containing resources for ‘gender-affirming care’ from government sites is appalling,” Congressman Ogles declared.
“At no point in American history has the judiciary considered the surgical or chemical castration of healthy children to be a compelling or even legitimate health concern and it shouldn’t start now,” he alleged, wrongly framing the judge’s actions. “We must protect our children from predators like Judge Bates.”
According to an extensive report in The Washington Post, however, Judge Bates had “ordered the nation’s premier health agencies to restore online access to several websites that monitor HIV, health risks for youths and assisted reproductive technologies, which were abruptly taken offline to ensure they complied with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on gender.”
Judge Bates wrote in his opinion: “By removing long relied upon medical resources without explanation, it is likely that … each agency failed to ‘examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action.’”
The Post adds that Bates found “that the health agencies probably violated federal law in taking down the scientific data. He ordered the agencies to restore access to the websites.”
In a video posted to social media (below), however, Rep. Ogles insisted the webpages Bates ordered restored were about “transgender surgeries.” In a press release attacking Judge Bates, Ogles went even further in wrongly characterizing the judge’s actions.
“The continued socialization of this grave moral evil necessitates immediate Congressional action against those promoting it. America’s founders gave Congress the authority to impeach judges to defend the will of the people,” Congressman Ogles falsely claimed. The founders did not give Congress authority to impeach judges to defend the will of the people. “My articles will do just that. It is unacceptable for rogue judges to implicate taxpayers in woke LGBTQ propaganda and the irreversible destruction of children’s bodies.”
U.S. District Chief Judge John “Jack” McConnell Jr.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) has “threatened to file articles of impeachment” against U.S. District Chief Judge John “Jack” McConnell Jr. who, Fox News reports, “filed a motion ordering the Trump administration to comply with a previous restraining order. The order temporarily blocked the administration’s efforts to pause federal grants and loans.”
READ MORE: Trump Mass Firings May Be ‘Contrary’ to Law, Watchdog Rules
According to Fox News, “McConnell has since come under fire from Trump supporters and conservatives who have accused him of being a liberal activist after a 2021 video of him saying courts must ‘stand and enforce the rule of law, that is, against arbitrary and capricious actions by what could be a tyrant or could be whatnot’ resurfaced online.”
WPRI reports that Musk wrote on X: “Impeach this activist posing as a judge! Such a person does great discredit to the American justice system,” and later, “Impeach this pseudo-jurist!!”
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer
Last week, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) filed articles of impeachment alleging U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer “engaged in judicial misconduct when he halted President Donald J. Trump’s Executive order establishing and implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency on purely political grounds, demonstrating clear bias and prejudice against the President and the 74,000,000 Americans who voted for him.”
Congressman Van Orden also charged the judge with “improper handling” of that case.
Reporting on the articles of impeachment, Bloomberg Law noted that U.S. Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) is also filing to impeach Judge Engelmayer.
In a press release, Congressman Crane says Judge Engelmayer “responded to an overtly political emergency request by 19 Democratic attorneys general aiming to prevent Trump administration officials from accessing a payment system within the Treasury Department.”
Bloomberg reported that the “acts against Engelmayer come after Musk called for judicial impeachments, in response to judges issuing court orders that blocked many Trump administration actions.”
During Musk’s Oval Office press conference, President Trump, Axios reported, had said, “Maybe we have to look at the judges because I think that’s a very serious violation.”
But it was Vice President JD Vance who perhaps made the most waves when he wrongly claimed that federal judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Watch Congressman Ogles’ video below or at this link.
Judge Bates joins the ranks of hundreds of partisan activists disobeying their oaths to score political points.
Thanks to patriots like @RepEliCrane and @Rep_Clyde, rogue judges like Bates will be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/zTBMmpCo8R
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) February 24, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Here’s a Civics Lesson for You’: Stephen Miller Schooled by Democratic Congresswoman
Image of Rep. Ogles via Wikimedia/public domain
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Highly sensitive information belonging to several top national security officials from the Trump administration—including passwords and cell phone numbers linked to their Signal accounts—is publicly available online. The encrypted messaging app was used in a major breach of classified national security information earlier this month, according to a leading German news outlet, DER SPIEGEL, which concluded that it is “conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group” discussions.
“DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials,” the news site reported Wednesday. The top officials include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—all of whom were part of the Signal chat in which a military attack was mapped out and carried out.
The sensitive information has been used by the three top officials in various ways, and reportedly remains in use.
READ MORE: ‘Liar’ Hegseth Faces ‘Immediate’ Resignation Demand From Growing List of Democrats
Some are “linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s data was “particularly easy for DER SPIEGEL reporters to discover,” including his cell phone number and email address.”
The reporters “turned to a commercial provider of contact information that is primarily used by companies for sales, marketing and recruitment,” and then they “sent the provider a link to Hegseth’s LinkedIn profile and received a Gmail address and a mobile phone number in return, in addition to other information.”
“A search of leaked user data revealed that the email address and, in some cases, even the password associated with it, could be found in over 20 publicly accessible leaks. Using publicly available information, it was possible to verify that the email address was used just a few days ago.”
READ MORE: ‘Quite a Bit of Perjury’: Texts Shatter Trump Admin’s ‘Bungled Coverup’ of Classified Leak
The DER SPIEGEL investigation, it said, also “revealed an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington. Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices.”
But National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s data was also easily accessed, including “several passwords for Waltz’s email address in leaked databases. The information also led to Waltz’s profiles for Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal.”
“DER SPIEGEL reporting has demonstrated, though, that privately used and publicly accessible telephone numbers belonging to [Gabbard] and Waltz are, in fact, linked to Signal accounts,” the German news outlet states. “It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strike.”
That essentially voids the arguments made by the Trump administration, Republican lawmakers, and right-wing news outlets which have said that the military strikes were successful, and no Americans were harmed so the breach of national security is, as President Trump claimed, a mere “glitch.”
READ MORE: ‘Putin Is Giddy’: NSA Knew Signal Was Vulnerable to Russian Hackers Before Security Breach
Image via Reuters
As Signalgate enters its third day and Pete Hegseth emerges as the central figure in what experts warn may be a serious—and possibly illegal—breach of classified information protocols, House and Senate Democrats are coalescing around a single goal: building the case while calling for the immediate resignation, or firing, of the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Politico‘s national security correspondent Robbie Gramer reports that “multiple White House insiders and GOP Congressional staffers argued to me that the reason this is turning into a scandal is because of Hegesth’s comments in the groupchat — not [Mike] Waltz for setting the groupchat up.”
“They said,” he added, “the real concern is what Hegseth said, and the sensitive information on Yemen strike plans that Hegseth volunteered without prompting in the groupchat.”
During Wednesday’s House Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) blasted the 18 Trump administration national security officials who participated in the Signal group chat, during which Secretary Hegseth reportedly shared classified information in an insecure environment.
RELATED: ‘Quite a Bit of Perjury’: Texts Shatter Trump Admin’s ‘Bungled Coverup’ of Classified Leak
Making his case for Hegseth’s immediate resignation, Congressman Crow got confirmation that both the National Security Agency and the Pentagon had issued warnings about the use of Signal and the vulnerabilities surrounding it. DNI Tulsi Gabbard admitted to Crow that she was part of the Signal text chain, along with lead Russia negotiator Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow during the chat and possibly using a personal phone, which he has denied.
“I deployed three times to combat in service to this nation,” Crow said, during the end of his remarks (video below). “I learned in that time in service that responsibility is core to leadership. You accept responsibility when things go wrong, you admit mistakes, you set the standard from the very top.”
“It is completely outrageous to me, completely outrageous to me the administration officials come before us today with impunity. No acceptance of responsibility. Excuse after excuse after excuse while we send our men and women down range to do incredibly difficult, incredibly dangerous things on our behalf. And yet, nobody is willing to come to us and say, ‘this was wrong, this was a breach of security and we won’t do it again.'”
“It is outrageous and it is a leadership failure and that’s why Secretary Hegseth, who undoubtedly transmitted classified sensitive operational information via this chain, must resign immediately. There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there is accountability, and I’m calling on the administration to move forward with accountability.”
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, blasted Hegseth’s claim that he shared no classified information in the Signal chat: “Pete Hegseth is a f—— liar. This is so clearly classified info he recklessly leaked that could’ve gotten our pilots killed. He needs to resign in disgrace immediately.”
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol of The Bulwark remarked, “Prediction: Hegseth gone by Friday.”
READ MORE: ‘Putin Is Giddy’: NSA Knew Signal Was Vulnerable to Russian Hackers Before Security Breach
NCRM has complied a very partial list of congressional Democrats who are calling for Secretary Hegseth’s resignation, or his firing. (Links go to their video or statement.)
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA)
U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ)
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA)
Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY)
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA)
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
U.S. Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA)
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT)
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), says Hegseth “should be fired.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
Watch the video below or at this link.
“There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there’s accountability. And I’m calling on the administration to move forward with accountability.”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) says Pete Hegseth ‘must resign immediately’ following leaked signal chat pic.twitter.com/rzw9xPM7ia
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 26, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Makes Me Want to Throw Up’: Democrat Goes Off on Fox Host Over Signalgate Spin
Image via Reuters
In response to the Trump administration’s disinformation-and-discredit campaign, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, has released the full Signal chat at the center of the growing national security scandal. National security experts and other analysts and experts, after reviewing the exchange, are sharply rejecting the administration’s efforts to downplay the severity of the breach. Many assert that, contrary to official claims, classified information was clearly shared by unsecured means—violating established protocols, internal policy, and potentially federal law.
The Trump administration and its Republican allies have been waging a disinformation campaign and pushing back against the credibility of The Atlantic and its editor-in-chief, after he revealed on Monday that he had been inadvertently added to a group text chat on Signal that took place over a number of days and involved the planning of a military strike against a terrorist group in Yemen.
The use of what has been called an unsecured chat on the messaging app Signal, likely on private, not government phones, while various members of the 18-person group were traveling overseas, including in Moscow, constitutes extreme violations of accepted national security practices, experts say. The conversations should have been held via secure communications, inside a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).
READ MORE: ‘Putin Is Giddy’: NSA Knew Signal Was Vulnerable to Russian Hackers Before Security Breach
The President, the White House Press Secretary, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secretary of Defense, and other officials — along with top Republican lawmakers and right wing media outlets—have all claimed that information in the Signal chat was not classified.
In sworn testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the CIA both insisted none of the information shared in the Signal chat was classified.
Experts disagree.
“The information Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed in the Signal chat was classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet, according to a US defense official and another source who was briefed on the operation,” CNN Pentagon and national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported.
“It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this,” the official said, Bertrand wrote.. “We don’t provide that level of information on unclassified systems, in order to protect the lives and safety of the servicemembers carrying out these strikes. If we did, it would be wholly irresponsible. My most junior analysts know not to do this.”
Barbara Starr, the iconic, now former CNN Pentagon correspondent for two decades, focused on Trump National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who admitted he set up the chat and inadvertently included Goldberg. She wrote:
“Waltz revealed an extraordinary detail when he said there was intel showing the top Houthi missile guy walked into a building. You only know that if you have overhead surveillance, comms intercepts, or an operative on the ground. It means the US had ‘pattern of life’ surveillance. How is that not classified?”
READ MORE: ‘Makes Me Want to Throw Up’: Democrat Goes Off on Fox Host Over Signalgate Spin
NBC News senior congressional reporter Scott Wong reports that two House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Republicans are denouncing the Trump administration’s handling of Signalgate.
“The White House is in denial that this was not classified or sensitive data. They should just own up to it and preserve credibility,” U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said.
After reviewing the Signal text chain, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) “said he is concerned about Hegseth sending this detailed information over the messaging app,” Wong also reported.
DesJarlais, chairman of the HASC subcommittee on Strategic Forces said: “It should have never happened and must not happen again.”
Joseph J. Collins is a retired U.S. Army colonel, professor of national security strategy at the National War College, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations. He currently leads the Center for Complex Operations at the National Defense University.
Dr. Collins, responding to Starr’s remarks, wrote: “Important point … this fiasco compromised or potentially compromised sources and methods, possibly including our agents and stringers on the ground.”
Veteran, veterans’ activist, and Amherst College political science lecturer Paul Rieckhoff declared: “Hegseth must step down or be removed. Any member of the Department of Defense that did this would be in prison. There is no way someone that did this can lead our military as SecDef. And even he knows it.”
“Everyone on this chat probably has to go. Everyone. They all know the rules,” he continued. “Loose lips sink ships. Everyone who’s ever served knows that line. It’s OPSEC 101 that every Private learns in Basic Training. And a f— up like this could have cost American lives. There is no spinning it. Hegseth’s got to go.”
“We can’t have a SecDef who doesn’t follow the same rules and standard he’s expected to hold for millions at DoD,” Rieckhoff added. “There’s no wiggle room. Stakes are too high. Our troops lives depend on it. And our enemies are celebrating.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is one of a handful of top Democrats who have been vociferously contesting the administration’s claims. Based on his extensive military and high-level of government service, late Wednesday he simply wrote: “Well, they lied. Obviously.”
Former CIA lawyer Brian Greer posted screenshots from The Atlantic’s report, and the regulations surrounding what is classified information. He wrote: “This is all very plainly classified at the SECRET level. They all lied. They should all lose their jobs.”
Apparently referencing Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing during which the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified, claiming there was no classified information shared, Greer wrote: “There was quite a bit of perjury yesterday.”
See his social media posts below or at this link.
On the left: Hegseth’s message.
On the right: the applicable CENTCOM classification guide provisions.
This is all very plainly classified at the SECRET level.
They all lied. They should all lose their jobs. https://t.co/koVfF4SIhN pic.twitter.com/D8Iaxh7zcd
— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) March 26, 2025
RELATED: ‘Sloppy, Careless, Incompetent’: National Security Chiefs Slammed in Senate Hearing
Image via Reuters
‘Quite a Bit of Perjury’: Texts Shatter Trump Admin’s ‘Bungled Coverup’ of Classified Leak
‘Liar’ Hegseth Faces ‘Immediate’ Resignation Demand From Growing List of Democrats
Passwords, Contact Info for Top Trump NatSec Officials ‘Publicly’ Available: Report
Passwords, Contact Info for Top Trump NatSec Officials ‘Publicly’ Available: Report
‘Liar’ Hegseth Faces ‘Immediate’ Resignation Demand From Growing List of Democrats
‘Quite a Bit of Perjury’: Texts Shatter Trump Admin’s ‘Bungled Coverup’ of Classified Leak
‘Makes Me Want to Throw Up’: Democrat Goes Off on Fox Host Over Signalgate Spin
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