Judges have encountered unsolicited pizza deliveries in the name of a judge’s son killed in 2020
US federal judges who have opposed US President Donald Trump in court have increasingly received threats – including threats by pizza delivery, reported the Associated Press.
Unsolicited pizzas have been sent to the homes of judges in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of New Jersey-based district judge Esther Salas, who was shot and killed in 2020 by a litigant disguised as a deliveryman. Judges who received the pizzas included Rhode Island district judge John J. McConnell, Jr. and Washington district judge Robert S. Lasnik.
McConnell had halted Trump’s first round of spending cuts, while an article blown up by a Pacific Northwest television station quoted Lasnik as criticizing attacks on judges. McConnell’s courtroom was swarmed with threats by phone; one profane call sought the judge’s assassination. According to Lasnik, he and his adult children, who are based in different cities, each received pizzas in Anderl’s name at their residences.
“The message to me was ‘we know where you live, we know where your kids live, and they could end up dead like Daniel Anderl did,” Lasnik said in an interview statement published by AP News.
At an event sponsored by Speak up for Justice, a nonpartisan group supporting an independent judiciary, McConnell presented a recording of the call he received to a group of federal judges discussing threats against them. Salas was among those who claimed that the threats have escalated in recent months.
Salas did not directly name Trump, but she urged the president and his administration to cease their open discrediting of judges.
“We’re used to being appealed. But keep it on the merits, stop demonizing us. They’re inviting people to do us harm,” Salas said in a statement published by AP News.
She added that according to US Marshals, over 100 “pizza doxings” had taken place since last year, with the volume amping up this year. She said she had also heard of incidents against state judges in Colorado and Florida.
“This is not some random, silly act, this is a targeted, concentrated, coordinated attack on judges, and yet we don’t hear any condemnation from Washington,” Salas said in an interview statement published by AP News.
Attacks have targeted judicial appointees from both the Democrat and Republican parties. Lasnik said judges on both sides were concerned but feared opening up the issue.
“A lot of them don’t know how to speak up and are afraid of crossing a line somewhere where they would get a judicial complaint like judge Boasberg did,” Lasnik said in a statement published by AP News.
Trump had sought to impeach Washington, DC district judge James E. Boasberg in March for ruling that the Trump administration was likely guilty of criminal contempt for disregarding the judge’s order to turn a deportation flight to El Salvador around. Recently, the US justice department filed a complaint against Boasberg for commenting at a judicial conference that the administration would disobey judges’ orders.
In June, the justice department sued all Maryland-based federal judges over rules regarding the handling of immigration cases.
In December 2022, the US Congress passed the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, which shields judges’ personal identifying information from resale by data brokers. According to the United States Courts website, the law also permits judges to remove their personal information from federal government sites and stop the publication of such information by businesses and individuals with no legitimate news media or other public interest.
Over five dozen judges who’ve opposed Trump have enhanced their online protection; two Trump judicial appointees said that judges had erased their identifying information from websites. The judges had written Congress seeking increased judicial security funding.
