The FBI raid of former President Donald Trump‘s Florida estate sparked backlash from extreme right-wing users on internet forums against a Florida magistrate judge who approved the unprecedented search, prompting concerns about judicial security from law enforcement in the Palm Beach area.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who is believed to have signed the still-sealed FBI warrant approving the bureau’s Monday raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, has been subject to antisemitic attacks, disclosure of where he allegedly lives, and threats against his family on pro-Trump online social media forums, including the message board formerly known as “TheDonald.win.”
An official with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the department is “aware of the threats” against Reinhart.
Among dozens of threatening posts, the Washington Examiner found one user wrote on TheDonald.win, “This r******d activist judge needs to get fired, then charged with treason. Show no mercy to these f***ing monsters.”
FBI DIRECTOR MAKES FIRST PUBLIC COMMENTS SINCE RAID ON TRUMP’S HOME
Some users on the message board even raised calls to find personal information about Reinhart, with one user posting, “Let’s find out if he has children….where they go to school, where they live…EVERYTHING,” according to a Vice News report.
“Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the raid,” another user posted on Aug. 9 to the social media platform GETTR, including the apparent address of the magistrate judge’s Florida home.
The recent threats from the Right follow a season of home protests against conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn abortion access under Roe v. Wade, including an assassination plot against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Those security threats were widely condemned by conservatives who demanded the Department of Justice do more to protect the judiciary.
The DOJ backed a bill that won final congressional approval in June that would bolster protection for federal judges in light of the heightened threats surrounding the abortion case. “The Justice Department takes extraordinarily seriously any violence, criminal threats of violence, intimidation (or) harassment of the justices or any government officials,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time.
Maj. Paul Jones of the Palm Beach Police Department told the Washington Examiner that his department is “working with our federal law enforcement partners” amid the flurry of online threats against Reinhart. The magistrate judge was appointed by district judges to his current position in 2018.
Retired Judge John E. Jones III, who served in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for two decades, criticized Trump’s decision to call the raid a “weaponization of the justice system” in the former president’s Monday evening statement, arguing that such statements from public figures can be interpreted as a green light to “harm judges,” according to an interview with Law.com.
“When public figures make inflammatory statements about the judiciary, no matter what their intention is, it can play to the unbalanced segments of society and be viewed as a license to harm judges,” Jones said.
Just hours after Trump announced the FBI raided his home Monday evening, online reactions by the former president’s supporters ranged from calls to civil war to formulating bizarre theories about the FBI’s motives. And as Trump has decried the raid as “prosecutorial misconduct,” he and his attorneys have also questioned whether the FBI was “planting” evidence at his estate, statements that could stir further outrage among some fringe forum users.
Additionally, Republican lawmakers who sympathize with the former president have heavily speculated about the motives behind the FBI raid and an apparent approval for the warrant by the magistrate judge, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who told Fox News on Tuesday that he “actually [doesn’t] think [FBI agents] went in looking for documents” sought by the National Archives.
“I think that was probably their excuse. They found some Obama-donor judge to write them a ruse. They found some Obama-donor judge — not even a judge, magistrate — to write and give them a search warrant. I think they went in to see whatever they could find,” Rubio claimed.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has also claimed the FBI raid was unrelated to records sought by the National Archives, writing in a tweet Tuesday, “If you still think this is all about some records for the National Archives … bless your heart.”
In his first public statement since the Monday raid, FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, said “deplorable” threats against the FBI and Justice Department employees are “not the answer.”
“I am always concerned about threats to law enforcement,” Wray said on Wednesday, adding, “Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with.”
Garland also opened up for the first time Thursday since the raid, saying he had “personally approved” the search of Trump’s Florida home and joining Wray’s calls to condemn “unfounded attacks” against law enforcement.
Garland’s statement also came just hours after an armed gunman attempted to break into an FBI building in Cincinnati. The suspect was later killed by law enforcement Thursday after an hourslong standoff.
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“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said of Trump and other GOP lawmakers who have publicly questioned whether there were political motives behind the FBI raid. “The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated public servants.”
The Washington Examiner contacted the DOJ and the FBI field office in Palm Beach.
