Trump says a judge should face charges related to the Kennedy Center controversy
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The judge who ordered the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center is married to an attorney representing an anti-Trump FBI attorney, served as counsel to a House committee on January 6 and is currently representing former President Joe Biden — a relationship Trump dismissed as a clear conflict of interest following the ruling.
Trump says in a hot document of Truth Social that the wife of US District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, Amy Jeffress, who was a lawyer for the Department of Justice during the Obama administration and became Trump’s top lawyer, encouraged her husband to reject Trump’s plans to renovate the Kennedy Center and remove his name from the building.
She cited Jeffress’ past and present clients, including some of her most prominent critics, as evidence that she is a “Radical Left Democrat” who is influencing her husband to rule against her.
“Trump Hating Judge wants to keep it open because his wife probably told him to!” Trump wrote about Cooper, referring to his rejection of Trump’s plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years for renovations.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP’S NAME REMOVED FROM KENNEDY CENTER, SAYS ONLY CONGRESS CAN REMOVE IT
A composite image shows a worker riding an elevator at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, alongside US District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ruled that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the building. (Getty / and US District Court in DC)
Cooper issued his decision on May 29, finding that the Kennedy Center’s board exceeded its legal authority when it voted to rename the center to include Trump’s name. He decided that only Congress can change the name of the center following the law establishing the Kennedy Center, which makes it clear that this place is dedicated to President John F. Kennedy.
Trump also alleged that Jeffress “doesn’t use the name ‘Cooper’ because they, as a couple, don’t want people to know that he has a conflict of interest with an important judge.”
The president pointed to Jeffress’ professional background, which includes serving as an adviser to Attorney General Eric Holder during the Obama administration. Trump and his allies have accused the Obama administration of politicizing intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election and fueling allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The FBI has called its investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign Crossfire Hurricane.
WHO IS NORM EISEN? MEET TRUMP’S SURVEILLANCE LAW ANSWERS TO FBI AGENTS WHO COMPLAIN DOJ
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok prepares to testify before a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 12, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Thousands of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok, the lead investigator of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe, and his then-lover Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer and adviser to Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, became public in 2018. The FBI.
Jeffress represented Page during the FBI’s investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private email for official State Department business. Page was not involved in the Clinton email investigation itself.
He later also represented Page in a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice, where he argued that the disclosure of the text messages was improper.
Years later, Jeffress served as outside counsel to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, advising members on legal issues including testimony, witness testimony and executive privilege claims. The committee examined the causes of the violence, attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, and Trump’s actions that led to the attacks.
TRUMP’S NAME ADDED TO KENNEDY CENTER FOLLOWING BOARD VOTE TO RESTART HISTORIC BUILDING
The sign is displayed in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building. (Getty Images)
The president also pointed to Jeffress’ law firm, Hecker Fink LLP, formerly known as Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, which represented E. Jean Carroll in her civil suit against her.
Since July 2025, Jeffress has served as Biden’s attorney and represented the former president in a lawsuit seeking to block the Justice Department from releasing documents and audio recordings of Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents.
“Amy is completely connected to the leftist system, from her husband on down, and it is impossible for me to be treated well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He has a Conflict of Interest, and he should be charged for not revealing these facts.”
Appointed by President Barack Obama, Cooper has served on the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, DC, since 2014.
The criticism against Cooper is not the first time he has been accused by Trump or his colleagues of having a conflict of opinion. Previously, Cooper was scrutinized during the prosecution of Special Counsel John Durham who was Clinton’s lawyer connected to the campaign Michael Sussmann, critics saying that he should have withdrawn because his wife, lawyer Amy Jeffress, represented the former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurrica investigation.
Sussmann’s case stems from Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Prosecutors allege that Sussmann falsely told the FBI that he was in charge of any clients when he raised allegations about a purported channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank during the 2016 election. Cooper rejected Sussmann’s attempt to dismiss the case before trial and allowed Durham’s prosecution to proceed, but a judge eventually acquitted Sussmann in May 2022 after a two-week trial led by Cooper.
President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon with Kennedy Center board members in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 16, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Cooper’s office, Jeffress, representative for former President Joe Biden, Page, representative for Garland, and Hecker Fink LLP for comment.
Cooper and Jeffress have been married since 1999. Their wedding was officiated by former Biden Justice Department Attorney General Merrick Garland, then a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
