The head of the US Marshals Service is sounding the alarm on a dramatic increase in the number of threats aimed at federal judges and prosecutors, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that the development “constitutes a substantial risk to our democracy.”
“I’m deeply concerned with the alarming increase in threats against our judiciary and the violent nature of those threats. In the past three years, the number of threats against federal judges have more than doubled, as have threats against prosecutors and other court officials,” US Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis told a House Judiciary subcommittee.
“I must state in stark terms that the current and evolving threat environment facing the judiciary constitutes a substantial risk to our democracy,” Davis added.
The number of federal judges who received serious threats rose to 457 in the fiscal year 2023 that ended in September, up from 300 the year before and 224 in fiscal 2021.
The number of federal prosecutors who were targets of threats also more than doubled from 68 in fiscal 2021 to 155 in the last fiscal year, according to data from the US Marshals Service.
These were threats considered serious enough to warrant an investigation by the Marshals Service, which is responsible for protecting federal judges and court staff.
The threat environment has worsened amid a politically divisive time in the United States.
A number of threats have been aimed at court officials connected to cases against Donald Trump, including from a Texas woman who was recently sentenced to three years in prison after leaving three threatening voicemails for the judge in Florida who is overseeing the criminal case against the former president over his handling of classified documents.
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