“It was frightening”: Federal judges speak out on vicious threats from MAGA fans

John J McConnell Jr the chief U S district judge in Rhode Island in recent times decided to break his silence By his own account the -year-old McConnell who has served on the federal bench since has faced an unprecedented deluge of attacks this year ranging from vile phone calls and six credible death threats to two judicial misconduct complaints and a set of impeachment articles filed against him One particularly appalling voicemail he commented shook his faith in the judicial system so much that he felt he needed to speak out It s daunting It was frightening the Obama appointee noted I ve never had anyone threatening to put me in prison threatening bodily injury wishing that I was assassinated McConnell described the galvanizing effect the threats have had on him during Thursday s edition of the nonpartisan Speak Up for Justice forum a grassroots effort to advocate for judicial independence and judges safety He and two other federal judges led by New Jersey U S District Judge Esther Salas recounted the startling and sometimes violent threats they ve received this year after issuing rulings against the Trump administration or speaking out against the attacks on the judiciary For McConnell and Judge John Coughenour a senior district court judge in the Western District of Washington this marked the first time either has spoken out about the harassment and attacks they ve incurred for upholding the rule of law Each warned of the chilling effect these acts could have on judicial independence Related In a man killed this judge s son He was coming for her I didn t want to be here It took me a long time McConnell reported crediting Salas courage following the murder of her son Daniel Anderl by an assailant who was targeting her for his willingness to speak out I ve never spoken about what s happened to me personally because I m not looking for pity I m not looking for sympathy McConnell mentioned I want to be able to just do my job again and I want to be able to uphold the Constitution I want the citizens to speak out once again and patronage an independent judiciary a judiciary where each one of us is safe to follow the rule of law without fear or favor In the expletive-laden voicemail McConnell received which played at the beginning of the webinar an angry caller accused the judge of overstepping his authority and threatened to harm him Tell the son of a b ch we re going to come for him His ass is going to prison the caller mentioned I double dare you to try to put charges on Donald J Trump you son of a b ch You re gonna get your asses whupped OK I will slap the f king s t out of it OK I ll slap your face to your face motherf ker But you know what motherf ker your ass is gonna go to prison OK son of a b ch And I wish somebody would f king assassinate your ass Somebody demands to f king wipe his ass out I want the community to speak out once again and patronage an independent judiciary a judiciary where each one of us is safe to follow the rule of law without fear or favor Earlier this year McConnell ruled against the Trump administration s executive order freezing funding for grants and federal aid first ordering the restoration of the funding cuts and then issuing a second order to enforce it Since then he s also been subject to pizza doxing the practice of sending large pizza orders to someone s home In his development the order was placed in the name of Judge Salas murdered son Rep Andy Ogles R-Tenn hung a required sign with McConnell s picture on it in the halls of Congress An unknown person McConnell explained searched for his home address on the dark web while Trump allies Laura Loomer and Elon Musk verbally attacked McConnell s daughter a former federal employee I don t know that the inhabitants understands how the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary is so violently under attack in methods I m not sure we ve ever seen in this country McConnell mentioned For Coughenour who is now and was originally appointed by Ronald Reagan in the threats against him and his family followed his January order blocking the Trump administration s executive order on birthright citizenship He described being swatted after the local sheriff s office received a call alleging that he had murdered his wife and a message from the FBI that someone had left a bomb at their home There was no bomb He chose to be a judge and will endure the attempts to intimidate him Coughenour mentioned but his family hadn t signed up for this level of harassment We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in the present day to aid Salon s original reporting What kind of people do these things It s just so disgusting he mentioned It s unspeakable that people will do these things It s just been stunning to me how much damage has been done to the reputation of our judiciary because certain political actors think that they can gain specific advantage by attacking the independence of the judiciary and threatening the rule of law Coughenour added District Judge Robert Lasnik who serves with Coughenour in the Western District of Washington declared he was likely the only judge who veritably desired to speak out Thursday The senior judge made a decision earlier this year to recuse himself from cases relating to the Trump administration so that he could remain free to comment on the overall picture of what s happening to the federal judiciary under these threats and intimidation Lasnik also received a pizza delivered in the name of Salas son after he called on Trump and his supporters to tone down the rhetoric directed toward the federal courts More alarming still his two adult children each received pizzas in Anderl s name delivered to their homes Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Lesson What s the message to Judge Lasnik We know where you live We know where your children live and they could end up dead like Judge Salas son did That s a pretty cruel thing to do the Clinton appointee explained adding that federal marshals are reviewing incidents published by more than judges who declared they received pizza deliveries they didn t order When Judge Salas was solicited how these doxings in the name of her murdered son had affected her she grew emotional The fifth anniversary of Anderl s killing was son July and she spoke to Salon about the dangers facing federal judges just a meager days later What we re talking to everyone about here in current times is that judges are being threatened These threats go to the core of a human being and that s when you re messing with someone s family she announced during Thursday s forum These speakers acknowledged that judges have sometimes faced attacks from left-wing critics as well such as the assassination attempt against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh But Salas emphasized that the nature of the inflammatory rhetoric coming from the top down this year alone amounts to a different threat entirely We in fairness are nonpartisan but we have to speak the facts she stated The facts are that we have political leaders with large social platforms political leaders with power calling us deranged and idiots That is the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that I think caused the judges that are on here nowadays to come forward Read more about threats to democracy We can t be indifferent Former Supreme Court justice warns Americans freedom is at danger Democrats sound alarm on Trump administration s attacks on voting rights American democracy is crashing out and it will be hard to reverse international rights group warns The post It was frightening Federal judges speak out on vicious threats from MAGA fans appeared first on Salon com