US judges saw sharp rise in threats related to political violence, data shows

Serious threats to US federal judges have more than doubled over the past three years, part of a growing wave of politically driven violence, according to US. marshals service data reviewed by Reuters.

The agency, responsible for the protection of 2,700 federal judges and more than 30,000 federal prosecutors and other court personnel, has seen a sharp rise in threats related to the country’s bitter political divisions, the marshals director, Ronald Davis, told Reuters in a recent interview.

The threats come amid the most sustained spate of political violence in the US since the 1970s, according to a Reuters investigation last year.

That reporting documented at least 232 politically motivated acts of violence since Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Those attacks included everything from riots and brawls at political demonstrations to politically motivated beatings and killings.

Serious threats against federal judges – ones that trigger an investigation by the agency – rose to 457 in fiscal year 2023, which ended on 30 September, from 224 in fiscal 2021, according to the previously unreported data. Serious threats against federal prosecutors also more than doubled, from 68 in 2021 to 155 in 2023, the statistics show.

The spike spans a period that began around the time of the 2020 presidential election, when federal courts heard a series of highly politicized cases, including failed lawsuits filed by former President Donald Trump and his backers seeking to overturn his loss. Over the same timeframe, election officials saw a barrage of threats from Trump’s supporters, as previously documented by Reuters.

Judges and prosecutors involved in the criminal and civil prosecutions of Trump have reported hundreds