By Ned Parker, Mike Spector, Peter Eisler, Linda So, Nate Raymond
May 2 (Reuters) -
When U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled in April that Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for deporting migrants in defiance of a court order, the blowback was immediate.
The president´s supporters unleashed a wave of threats and menacing posts. And they didn´t just target the judge. Some attacked Boasberg´s brother. Others blasted his daughter. Some demanded the family´s arrest - or execution.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell´s family endured similar threats after he ruled that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority in freezing grants for education and other services. Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer tweeted a photo of the judge´s daughter, who had worked at the U.S. Education Department as a policy advisor, and accused McConnell of protecting her paycheck. Billionaire Elon Musk amplified the post to his 219 million X followers. Neither mentioned the daughter had left her job before Trump´s inauguration.
Loomer continued her attacks with nine more posts in the ensuing days - and more than 600 calls and emails flooded McConnell´s Rhode Island courthouse, including death threats and menacing messages taunting his family, according to a court clerk and another person familiar with the communications.
Boasberg and McConnell are among at least 11 federal judges whose families have faced threats of violence or harassment after they ruled against the new Trump administration, a Reuters investigation found.
The broadsides are part of an intimidation campaign directed at federal judges who have stood in the way of
Trump´s
moves to dramatically expand presidential authority and slash the federal bureaucracy.
As Trump and his allies call for judges to be impeached or attack them as "radical left" political foes, the families of judges are being singled out for harassment.
Since Trump returned to power in January, at least 60 judges or appeals courts have slowed or blocked some of his administration´s initiatives. Reuters spoke with a dozen federal judges who raised concerns about the security of their own families or of the relatives of colleagues handling Trump-related cases. They included jurists appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Most requested anonymity, citing the potential for further inflaming security fears or raising questions about their impartiality. Additional information was gleaned from legal records and interviews with half a dozen officials involved in court security.
Threats against judges and their families "are ultimately threats to constitutional government. It´s as simple as that," U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, who chairs a security committee for the federal judiciary´s policymaking arm, said in an interview.
The judiciary has emerged as a powerful constraint on a range of Trump´s initiatives, from dismantling government agencies to deporting migrants and targeting law firms. As Trump´s White House threatens to defy some court orders, legal scholars warn the country may already be in a constitutional crisis.
The White House has said judges are the ones overreaching, not the president, but that threats against the judiciary are "unacceptable."
"No one takes security threats more seriously than President Trump - a leader who survived not
one
, but
two
assassination attempts," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in response to questions for this story. "The safety of every American is his top priority, and anyone who endangers that safety will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Reuters identified more than 600 posts on social media and right-leaning message boards since February targeting family members of judges who ruled against the Trump administration. The commentators attacked everything from their physical appearance to their patriotism. Amplified on X and other platforms by some of Trump´s most prominent allies, including Musk, those posts have been viewed more than 200 million times. At least 70 posts explicitly called for judges´ family members to face violence, retaliation or arrest.
Other threats or menacing messages were made directly in calls and emails to the courts or the homes of judges and their relatives, according to court records and interviews with U.S. officials involved in judicial security.
Some of the intimidation comes in a novel form: Pizzas are being sent anonymously to the homes of judges and their relatives, which authorities view as a we-know-where-you-live warning.
Facing more than 200 lawsuits challenging the legality of his initiatives, Trump and his allies have blasted judges as "crooked," "conflicted" and "rogue," among other derisive terms. "We cannot allow a handful of communist radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States," Trump told a rally on Tuesday.
In March, Trump
called for a judge to be impeached
, drawing a rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Judges and legal experts say such attacks jeopardize the judicial independence that underpins America´s democratic constitutional order and could inspire violence.
"The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said on Thursday at a conference of judges in Puerto Rico.
Reuters examined hundreds of posts and comments reaching millions of people across nearly a dozen online platforms, including Musk-owned X and far-right websites such as Gateway Pundit and Patriots.win. The review identified calls for at least 51 federal judges to be fired, arrested or killed. All of those judges handled cases involving the new Trump administration. The posts and comments often echoed Trump´s language, describing the judges as "radical," "leftist" or "activist."
The U.S. Marshals Service, which protects federal judges, declined to comment on threats against the judiciary.
The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking arm of the federal courts, requested an increase in funding for security in
an April 10 letter to U.S. lawmakers
, citing "escalating" threats against judges and concern over "the impact of hiring freezes and staffing losses" in the Marshals Service.
At a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, topup domino murah, Trump's nominee to lead the Marshals, Gadyaces Serralta, was asked what would happen if Trump ordered the Marshals to halt security for a judge. Serralta said he didn´t believe that would happen and vowed to "continue to keep all our judges safe" if he was confirmed.
Current and former jurists said the maelstrom engulfing judges´ family members is particularly alarming, pointing to colleagues on the bench who have lost loved ones to violence. A disgruntled litigant killed the mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow in her Chicago home two decades ago. U.S. District Judge Esther Salas´ son was killed when a would-be assassin showed up at her New Jersey home in 2020.
"To be concerned about family members, it´s not theoretical. It´s happened," David Levi, a former federal judge in Sacramento appointed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush, said in an interview. "I don´t think that most judges thought they were taking on risk to their families when they accepted the job. Not in the way we are experiencing right now.