Judge Fails To Recuse Himself In Trump Spending Freeze Case

Judge John McConnell, chief judge of the federal district court of Rhode Island, has such a deep conflict of interest in one of the Trump Administration’s spending freeze cases that it is obvious he should have recused himself. His continued involvement in the case is another sign that the court system is rigged, leaving the majority of U.S. citizens who voted for President Donald Trump’s policies watching lawfare instead of seeing progress.

When the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told federal department heads in January to place a temporary pause on grant, loan, and other financial assistance programs, the left rushed to court to fight it. The OMB wanted to assure taxpayer money was not going to support programs promoting diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.

In this case, a group of 22 states and the District of Columbia went to court calling the administration’s freeze on federal funding unconstitutional. McConnell ordered the administration to unfreeze the funds and the administration is now appealing. A similar case, brought by the National Council of Nonprofits is playing out with U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in the Washington, D.C. court. You can read about that case here.   

The spending freeze affected federally funded nonprofits which may get their money directly from the federal government, from state programs that receive federal funds and pass the money on to nonprofits, or from other nonprofits that get money from the feds and hand it out as local grants.  

McConnell has held an 18-year leadership role in Crossroads Rhode Island, a $31 million nonprofit that gets over half its funding from federal money. It received more than $18 million in 2023 according to its tax exempt 990 form, first reported by researchers at America First Legal (AFL).

McConnell is a member of the board of directors for Crossroads Rhode Island. Founded in 1894 as The Travelers Aid Committee of the YWCA, Crossroads now builds and manages low income housing. Much of its funding comes through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

AFL reported Crossroads Rhode Island received more than $128 million in federal and state funding by way of federal funding during McConnell’s time on the board.

Helping the poor is lucrative when the taxpayers foot the bill. In 2023, Crossroads Rhode Island’s highest paid employee was then-CEO Karen Santilli, who earned almost $374,000 including base salary and deferred compensation, the nonprofit’s tax exempt 990 form shows. Santilli has since left Crossroads Rhode Island to become the CEO of the YMCA of Greater Providence.

Crossroads Rhode Island partners with One Neighborhood Builders, a $9.5 million nonprofit that develops real estate for affordable housing “with a mission to promote equity, public health and safety,” according to its 990 tax exempt form. The nonprofits are intertwined enough that McConnell has an interest in seeing One Neighborhood Builders succeed.

Olneyville Housing Corporation does business under the name One Neighborhood Builders. Olneyville Housing Corporation has a $2 million contract with HUD that runs 2023-2031 according to USAspending.org.

Is it for housing? No. The grant money is quite flexible. According USAspending.gov, the money is for “economic development initiative, community project funding, and miscellaneous grants.”

It may be used “to provide investment in a wide variety of projects such as housing, homelessness prevention, workforce training, public facilities, parks, resilience planning and other critical infrastructure and services,” according to the federal grant guide book.

Funds were released for this grant to give out grants in Feb. 2023, meaning paperwork and likely the award notification would have been done in 2022.

Before that, Olneyville Housing Corporation awarded 21 grants to smaller nonprofits in 2022, but it is unclear if funding for those grants came from directly from federal or state money. According to its 2022 (most recent) 990 form, the 21 grants were to “promote equity, public health and community safety.” This included grants from Olneyville Housing Corporation to the following recipients:

$60,000 to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Education and Support Fund; $12,800 to the Refugee Dream Center, providing housing, transportation and social services to refugees; $15,000 for the Providence Public Library; and $127,000 for Project Weber, an “overdose prevention center,” where addicts can inject or smoke illicit drugs and be medically monitored and revived in case of overdose.

Money to a housing nonprofit goes to a library or supervised drug centers? These are the paths of spending DOGE is investigating, unless a judge interferes with the investigation.

As a board member on for Crossroads Rhode Island, which has partnered with One Neighborhood Builders, McConnell had a clear motive to keep federal funding flowing. AFL notes two federal laws McConnell appears to have ignored.

One requires judges to disqualify themselves if there is even an appearance that their impartiality might be questioned.

The law also “requires judges to disqualify themselves when they are a fiduciary or have any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.” AFL posted on X.

It does not take a law degree to see McConnell should recuse himself from this case.

Challenging the OMB are the usual Democrat operatives, who gave the case an immediate partisan lawfare stank. It was brought by 23 attorney generals including Aaron Ford of Nevada; Keith Ellison of Minnesota; Dana Nessel of Michigan; Phil Weiser of Colorado; Kwame Raoul of Illinois; Bob Bonta of California; and Letitia James of New York.

There are several similar cases regarding the Trump Administration’s disputed spending freeze.

The U.S. Supreme Court offered a split decision Wednesday, with the majority (5-4) siding with Washington, D.C. District Court Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee. The decision directs the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to pay $2 billion to nongovernmental groups for “work already completed” before the issuance of the District Court’s temporary restraining order,” as my colleague Shawn Fleetwood wrote.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.