Trump Supporter's Threats to Judges Fuel Democracy Concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of federal judges face the same job every day. search warrant. But for U.S. Justice of the Peace Bruce Reinhart, the repercussions from his decision to approve a search warrant were not routine.

Whether he improperly removed classified material He has faced a barrage of death threats since his signature earlier this month revealed a path for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion as part of an investigation into White. from the house. Reinhardt's home address was posted on right-wing sites along with anti-Semitic slurs. His South Florida synagogue canceled Friday night's Shabbat service after the unrest.

Mr. Trump has done little to cool the heat among his supporters, accusing the search of political persecution, and Mr. Reinhardt, a former Democrat. Reinhardt, however, also served the Republican Party.

The threats against Reinhardt are part of a wider attack in the aftermath of the manhunt by Trump and his supporters against law enforcement agencies, particularly his FBI. But experts warn that a focus on judges is dangerous to the U.S. rule of law and the nation's survival as a democracy amid mounting threats to justice overall. 28}

“The threat to constitutionally responsible judges strikes at the very heart of our democracy,” said the US Second Circuit, chairman of the Judiciary Council Committee on Justice Security. Court Judge Richard J. Sullivan said in a recently issued statement. Search aftermath. "Judges need not fear retaliation for doing their job."

A phone message left in Reinhardt's room was not immediately returned. On Thursday, he presided over hearings in response to requests from media organizations, including the Associated Press, in an effort to unseal the underlying affidavits he filed when the Justice Department sought the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.

Severe attacks directed at him are becoming more and more common. In 2014, the Federal Marshals Service processed 768 of his cases classified as "improper communications" directed at judges and court officials. Last year he passed 4,500.

At some point, ``virtually everyone recognized how inappropriate it was to endanger the life or safety of a judge because they disagreed with his decision.'' '' said Barbara Lynn, Chief Justice for the Northern District of Texas. 41} Lynn is one of a number of law enforcement officials calling on Congress to approve the Daniel Andel bill, named after District Judge Esther Salas' 20-year-old son. He was killed when gunmen came to his home in New Jersey in 2020. His father was injured. The bill, which has the support of groups ranging from the American Bar Association to the National Association of Attorneys General, would make judges' personal information even more confidential.

In June, former Wisconsin County Circuit Judge John Remer was murdered in his home. Authorities said it was a targeted killing by the shooter, who was also fatally wounded. Later that month, protesters gathered at the home of a conservative U.S. Supreme Court justice after she overturned her 49-year-old ruling that women have a constitutional right to have an abortion. Police arrested a man with a knife, zip ties and a gun near Judge Brett Kavanaugh's home, who said he planned to kill the conservative judge. Congress has swiftly approved funds to increase security at the judge's home and protect his family around the clock.

Judges are increasingly targeted as trust in public institutions plummets and partisan rhetoric escalates. This is part of a pattern Stephen Levitsky has seen before.

"This is a classic precursor to the collapse of democracy," says his Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and co-author of How Democracies Die. "To call this a warning sign is an understatement." and changed the ground rules governing threats and explosive rhetoric, said Matthew Weil. Democracy Initiative at the Center for Bipartisan Policy in Washington, DC.

"There are threats everywhere now. We've changed what was allowed in the public discourse, so it's more normalized," Weil said. judicial branch.

Nathan Hall, principal consultant for the National Center for State Courts, said the delay in public trust, combined with access to judges' addresses and personal information, led to the nationally renowned Supreme Court. He pointed out that it affects everyone from judges to judges. Anonymous State Judge.

"This gets to the core issue of equal access to justice: the core tenet of our ability to function as a third independent branch of government. I'm really shaken up to now," Hall said. "Judges are just people after all. They wear robes, but they still go home to their families."

The latest warning sign is Trump. The Florida resort and political and personal headquarters of Mar-a-Lago emerged after last week's raid. Court records show FBI agents seized 11 sets of classified information as part of an investigation into three different federal laws, including the law governing the collection, transmission, or loss of defense information under the Espionage Act.

Mr. Trump accused the government of abusing its power to target him, and his supporters vehemently opposed online searches targeting the FBI and the Department of Justice. Trump's Truth An armed man who posted threats to his FBI on his social network has been killed by officials after attempting to storm his office in Cincinnati.

Still, Trump and his supporters have been waging a rhetorical war against the FBI for years, since an investigation into whether his first campaign was sponsored by Russia in 2016. The focus on individual judges like Reinhardt is relatively new. said it reflected what demagogues had done in other countries that had done so. "The targeting of the judiciary by popularly elected leaders is often an early sign of democratic erosion," Helmke said in his email.

Helmke cites Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru as places where the incoming administration has vowed to wipe out the judiciary, and has since pumped followers into it. "People will never build real trust and confidence in the judiciary, and it is inherently costless to use the manipulation of the judiciary by the previous administration as an excuse to create the courts the next administration wants. Helmke said, "The end result is no judicial independence, no rule of law." said you can see what happens in I think there's probably a lot of disagreement about how far we've gone down that road already, but it raises an important question.

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Riccardi reported from Denver.

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