A House GOP lawmaker announced Tuesday that he is drafting articles of impeachment against a federal judge who blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department payment systems.

Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said in a post on X, “I’m drafting articles of impeachment for US District Judge Paul Engelmayer.”

Mr Crane said, “Partisan judges abusing their positions is a threat to democracy. The left has done ‘irreparable harm’ to this country. President Trump and his team at DOGE are trying to fix it.”

He said that Judge Engelmayer, of the Southern District of New York, is “attempting to stop White House employees from accessing the very systems they oversee” and asked, “Where in the constitution does it say a President and his team cannot root out obvious waste, fraud and abuse?”

The Washington Times reached out to the judge for comment.

Judge Engelmayer’s decision will remain in force until Friday, when the next court hearing is scheduled.

After he drafts impeachment articles, Mr. Crane must submit them to the House of Representatives, where they would be referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Judge Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, angered Mr. Musk on Sunday when he issued an order in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general saying that the DOGE team had no authority to access the systems with sensitive information, including Americans’ bank account numbers.

“A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” Mr. Musk said on X. “He needs to be impeached NOW!”

The judge’s temporary restraining order blocks the government from “granting access to all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department, to any Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees.”

He also ordered those who did access the system to “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.”

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.