Threats to federal judges have risen every year since 2019

Boston Herald Archive

Washington — Federal investigators responded to over 400 threats to federal judges across the country in 2023, nearly 300 more than in 2019, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) and obtained by CBS News.

There were 457 incidents targeting federal judges that were investigated last year, up from just 300 in 2022 and 179 in 2019. According to the USMS — the federal law enforcement agency that protects the judiciary branch — the numbers represent the threats that were investigated. Members of the judiciary may have received more than one threat.

Investigated threats against federal judges have risen every year since 2019, according to the USMS.

Attacks and threats against the federal judiciary received more attention last year after the judge overseeing the 2020 election-related case against former President Donald Trump was the target of a criminal threat in August.

“We are coming to kill you,” a Texas woman allegedly told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a voicemail, according to court papers. “You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.” Prosecutors charged the woman for making the threats, and she pleaded not guilty.

Chutkan — who received an enhanced security detail after she was randomly assigned to preside over Trump’s case, according to people familiar with the matter — was also the subject of a so-called “swatting” incident in January after emergency services in Washington, D.C., received a fake call about a shooting at her home address.

Last year, special counsel Jack Smith, who charged the former president with federal crimes, was also the target of a “swatting” incident.

According to USMS, 155 threats against federal prosecutors were investigated in 2023, compared to the 93 reported in 2022. In the five-year period between 2019 and 2023, threats against Justice Department attorneys first decreased to just 68 in 2021, before rising to last year’s high.

Other public officials, including Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, and GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Brandon Williams of New York recently said they, too, were the targets of swatting incidents.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Merrick Garland warned of a “disturbing” spike in threats against public officials, which included hoax bomb threats at government buildings across the country that prompted numerous disruptive evacuations.

“These threats of violence are unacceptable,” Garland told reporters in January. “They threaten the fabric of our democracy.”

In Colorado, members of the state Supreme Court faced violent threats after they ruled Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s presidential primary ballot due to his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That case is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And in 2022, a California man traveled was charged with trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.