
After hearing charges against Trump supporters who assaulted the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth saw a surge of harassment that exceeded his previous experiences with enraged criminals, drug cartels, and al Qaeda.
Lamberth was depicted by right-wing blogs as an operative in a “deep state” plot to depose Trump and his supporters. His execution was demanded on websites that lean toward Trump.
Reagan, a Republican, nominated Lamberth to the court.
His supporters have been threatening and intimidating judges, prosecutors, and other judicial officials that Trump targets as he confronts a deluge of lawsuits and indictments leading up to this year’s election.
Due to the criminal and civil cases and his numerous unsuccessful attempts to reverse his election defeat, Trump’s criticism of the court has escalated significantly since late 2020. From 220 in 2020 to 457 in 2023, severe threats against federal judges more than doubled.
According to judges from all levels of the US legal system, the increasing number of threats is threatening the judicial independence that supports America’s democratic constitutional order.
Trump has been aiming for the court personally since his 2016 presidential campaign. He claimed that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel was biased and even a “hater” because of Trump’s strict immigration policies. Curiel was to rule on a lawsuit brought by students of “Trump University.”
Trump has also gone after federal judge James Robart for his role in blocking an executive order that would have barred citizens of certain countries with a large Muslim population from entering the country.
The Marshals have looked into over 1,200 credible threats against federal judges throughout the past four years.
Some judges express their displeasure that the majority of their harassers go unpunished, while others describe the shock of suddenly being bombarded with threats.
The number of severe threats against state judges is on the rise; about 90% of them are worried about their safety in some way, and one-third have admitted to carrying a gun for protection. The assassination of federal judge Esther Salas’s son in 2020 brought attention to the dangers of physical assaults on judges, which are still uncommon.