This Republican tried to impeach a judge. Guess which billionaire cut him a check?

Elon Musk gave the maximum campaign contributions allowed to seven Republican members of Congress trying to impeach judges who are bold and brave enough to honor their oaths to the Constitution instead of sheepishly ignoring the law and giving President Donald Trump whatever he wants.

When I see a news article that starts out like that I immediately say to myself, “There must be someone from Arizona on that list.”

Yep.

Arizona’s own Republican Rep. Eli Crane received a nice fat check from our South African American co-president for having filed articles of impeachment on U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who prevented “DOGE” bros from accessing the financial records of ordinary Americans like us.

The judge’s decision is something for which Crane should have been thanking him, rather than trying to impeach him.

Republicans staging useless stunts to impress Trump and Musk

But, no.

With Arizona’s GOP members of Congress, their loyalty – fealty, actually – is only to Trump. Not to those who put them in office. Not to their constitutional oaths.

When asked about the donation from Musk, Crane said, “We didn’t do it so Elon Musk would give us a campaign donation. But I think it’s great that individuals like Elon are throwing support behind those of us willing to take action.”

This, too, is BS.

Crane did not “take action.” He knew before filing impeachment articles that it would go nowhere.

What he did was not “action.” It was performance. For Trump. For Elon.

Opinion: Judge exposes small-minded idiocy of Trump’s transgender military ban

Some egregious ethical violation by judges have been ignored

Crane wanted to demonstrate that he is willing to ignore the fact that Congress is supposed to be part of a checks-and-balances process with the president and the courts.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who focuses on federal courts and judicial selection, told The Arizona Republic, “No judge has ever been charged, much less convicted, by way of impeachment, for decisions that people don’t agree with. It’s just unprecedented, what they’re asking to be done.”

One justifiable reason to impeach a judge involves egregious ethical violations and conflicts of interest.

Opinion: Trump revives ‘with us or against us,’ labeling anything he opposes ‘terrorism’

For example, remember how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – for about 20 years – accepted luxury trips from Dallas businessman and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without disclosing them?

Strangely (or not) I don’t recall Republican members of Congress calling for the impeachment of Thomas, about whom Trump speaks glowingly.

We don’t need angels. We need real members of Congress.

Likewise, I don’t recall Republicans calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, another judge Trump admires, who chose not to disclose a luxury trip to Alaska, or the flight on a private jet, of hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who had several cases before the court.

The country is not supposed to operate that way.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don’t have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

In addition to Crane, Musk wrote checks to Republicans Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Brandon Gill of Texas. He also donated to Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, according to The New York Times.

In 1788, when James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and others were trying to get states to ratify the Constitution, they published Federalist Paper No. 51, titled, “The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments.”

It said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. … In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

The people of Arizona do not need Rep. Crane to be an angel.

It would be nice, however, if he would at least be a congressman.

EJ Montini is a columnist at the Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Musk donates to 7 Republicans. All tried to impeach judges | Opinion