Apparent ‘Swatting’ Incident Targets Judge in Trump Election Case

Police officers and emergency personnel were sent on Sunday night to the Washington home of the federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s election interference case in what appeared to be an incident of “swatting,” according to three people familiar with the matter.

The police and fire vehicles were responding to a report that a shooting had occurred at the home of the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, who has been handling the criminal case accusing Mr. Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, the people said. According to an incident report released by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department that did not name Judge Chutkan, officers were “advised that she was not injured and that there was no one in her home” when they arrived at the house around 10 p.m. Sunday.

Swatting is the colloquial term for filing false reports to the police to set off a threatening or potentially dangerous response by officers. Incidents of swatting have become more common in recent years and have been used against various politicians and public figures.

It was unclear who told police that there had been a shooting, and there was no way to determine if the episode was linked to Judge Chutkan’s handling of Mr. Trump’s criminal case or to any of the cases she has overseen connected to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.

The incident took place one day after the third anniversary of Jan. 6 and two days before a crucial appeals court hearing concerning Mr. Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution in the case because the charges arose from actions he took while he was in the White House.

In July 2022, another federal judge in Washington, Emmet G. Sullivan, also had the police called to his house in