The U.S. Marshals Service found that serious threats to federal judges and prosecutors spiked considerably in recent years, increasing over 50% from last year.
The federal agency recorded 457 serious threats against federal judges that prompted an investigation in 2023. That is a 52.3% increase from 2022, when the agency investigated 300 threats. In 2021, there were 224 threats investigated, 220 in 2020, and 179 in 2019, according to the agency’s data shared with Reuters.
There were 115 threats against prosecutors requiring an investigation in 2023, up from 93 in 2022 — a nearly 24% increase.
The Marshals Service is tasked with protecting 2,700 federal judges and over 30,000 federal prosecutors. Director Ronald Davis said that the rise in serious threats can be attributed to the strong political divisions in the United States. The director is scheduled to testify at a House Judiciary subcommittee oversight hearing on Wednesday.
“The threat environment right now that is causing me concern is when people disagree with the judicial process or the government, and that turns into those verbal attacks,” Davis said to the outlet. “And that is the beginning of the process that threatens the judiciary and threatens our democracy.”
The spike in serious threats spans a period that began around the 2020 presidential election, when courts and judges were presented with a series of politicized cases, including lawsuits from former President Donald Trump, who pushed debunked claims that he lost due to election fraud. An investigation by the news outlet last year determined that there have been 213 politically motivated acts of violence since Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Officials also noted an increase in threats around the time and after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, according to the report.
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Since Trump has been indicted in four criminal cases on 91 felony counts, there has been an increase in threats to the judges and court personnel involved.
The woman behind the death threats to Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump’s special counsel classified documents case, was recently sentenced to over three years in prison. Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the New York civil fraud case, had received “hundreds” of threats.
