A Republican-appointed judge denounced Donald Trump\u2019s social media attacks against the judge presiding over the former president\u2019s hush money trial in Manhattan and his daughter, calling them assaults on the rule of law that could lead to violence and tyranny.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen judges are threatened, and particularly when their family is threatened, it\u2019s something that\u2019s wrong and should not happen,\u201d U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, told CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins in a live interview Thursday. He added, \u201cIt is very troubling because I think it is an attack on the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unusual media statement by a sitting federal judge came after Trump blasted New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and his daughter, Loren Merchan, criticizing her affiliation with a digital marketing company that works with Democratic candidates and erroneously attributing to her a social media post showing Trump behind bars.<\/p>\n
Walton, who was appointed by presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to courts in Washington in 1981 and 1991, said \u201cany reasonable, thinking person\u201d would appreciate the impact of Trump\u2019s rhetoric on some followers, intentional or not. The judge recalled how a disgruntled litigant killed the son and wounded the husband of New Jersey federal Judge Esther Salas at her home in a 2020 shooting.<\/p>\n
Since late 2020, as Trump began escalating his attacks on the judiciary, serious investigated threats against federal judges have more than doubled, from 224 in 2021 to 457 in 2023, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, as first reported by Reuters. Federal judges in Washington say at least half of trial judges handling cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have received a surge in threats and harassment, including death threats to their homes, with Trump\u2019s election obstruction trial judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, placed under 24-hour protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rule of rule of law can only be maintained if we have independent judicial officers who are able to do their job and ensure that the laws are in fact enforced and that the laws are applied equally to everybody who appears in our courthouse,\u201d Walton told CNN. He was prompted to speak out of concern for the \u201cfuture of our country and the future of democracy in our country,\u201d Walton said, \u201cbecause if we don\u2019t have a viable court system that\u2019s able to function efficiently, then we have tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walton\u2019s remarks came as several federal judges in Washington appointed by Republican presidents have spoken with increasing urgency about Trump\u2019s disregard for historical facts and alarmed at his increasingly graphic and at times violent description of defendants prosecuted in the Jan. 6 riot as \u201cpolitical prisoners\u201d and \u201chostages\u201d who did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream,\u201d U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said in a January sentencing. \u201cI have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan similarly told a group of Georgetown Law School students in January that false claims that riot defendants were acting like tourists or patriots were destructive rewriting of reality. \u201cThere\u2019s a danger that is embedded now in our communities across the country,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we have to wonder where this is going to end up if that\u2019s part of our history, this fraudulent story\u201d by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Hogan spoke shortly after his retirement after completing 40 years on the bench and sentencing 26 Jan. 6 riot defendants.<\/p>\n
Hogan and Lamberth were both appointed by Reagan, and both served as chief judges of the U.S. District Court in Washington, where judges have presided over more than 1,350 prosecutions for the riot that resulted after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol where Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack or in the immediate aftermath, as pro-Trump rioters injured more than 100 police officers, ransacked Capitol offices, and forced lawmakers to evacuate. About 486 defendants have been charged with assaulting or impeding officers or employees, including 127 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n
Trump has claimed he is a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration as the two men face a 2024 rematch of the 2020 election, and continues to maintain he won the last time, despite repudiation of his arguments by nearly 40 courts, his own White House counsel, attorney general and members of his campaign. He faces a $450 million civil fraud verdict against his businesses, and four separate criminal cases charging him with paying hush money to an adult film actress, mishandling classified documents, and interfering with the 2020 election results.<\/p>\n
Several of the 23 D.C. federal judges who have sentenced Jan. 6 defendants have noted Trump\u2019s role in events, including judges appointed by presidents of both parties. But the recent statements by appointees of Trump\u2019s GOP predecessors is notable in breaking with partisan affiliation. After one Jan. 6 trial last year, Walton called Trump a \u201ccharlatan\u201d who led followers into believing unfounded allegations and falsehoods, and who \u201cdoesn\u2019t in my view really care about democracy but only about power. And as a result of that, it\u2019s tearing this country apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
All three judges have warned of a significant increase in the number of threats they and other judges have faced since the Capitol attack, which Walton called \u201cvery, very very concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a judge for over 40 years. And, this is a new phenomenon. I\u2019m not saying that it didn\u2019t happen before, but it was very rare that I would ever receive any type of a threat,\u201d Walton said. \u201cAnd unfortunately, that is no longer, the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan told law students threats had increased, \u201cno question about it, I think encouraged by the prior president, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say half our judges have been seriously threatened\u201d regarding their handling of cases related to Trump, Hogan said in a Jan. 22 law school talk. \u201cIt makes you nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Texas woman was charged with threatening to kill Chutkan shortly after she was assigned Trump\u2019s case last August, leaving a voice-mail message in the judge\u2019s chambers calling Chutkan a racial slur and saying, \u201cIf Trump doesn\u2019t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b\u2014-,\u201d according to charging papers.<\/p>\n
In January, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron received a bomb threat to his Long Island home, hours before closing arguments were set to begin in Trump\u2019s civil fraud case over which he was presiding.<\/p>\n
Authorities are increasing security at the federal courthouse in Washington at a time when Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that law enforcement has seen a \u201cdeeply disturbing spike\u201d in threats and attacks on public officials, including judges and prosecutors in Trump\u2019s cases, even as the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee has predicted \u201cbedlam in the country\u201d if his criminal cases damage his candidacy.<\/p>\n
Lamberth has said he could not deny the facts after presiding over dozens of cases, listening to hundreds of hours of testimony, and receiving thousands of pages of briefing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rioters interfered with a necessary step in the constitutional process, disrupted the lawful transfer of power and thus jeopardized the American constitutional order. Although the rioters failed in their ultimate goal, their actions nonetheless resulted in the deaths of multiple people, injury to over 140 members of law enforcement and lasting trauma for our entire nation,\u201d Lamberth said in January. \u201cThis was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A Republican-appointed judge denounced Donald Trump\u2019s social media attacks against the judge presiding over the former president\u2019s hush money trial in Manhattan and his daughter, calling them assaults on the rule of law that could lead to violence and tyranny. \u201cWhen judges are threatened, and particularly when their family is threatened, it\u2019s something that\u2019s wrong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}