Federal judges around the country are reporting an increase in violent threats issued in response to rulings that challenge President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The threats have become so extreme that dozens of retired judges have formed a bipartisan group designed to lobby the Trump administration, particularly the president himself, to stop demonizing judges.
60 Minutes spoke to 26 sitting and retired federal judges—nine appointed by Democrats, 17 appointed by Republicans. The judges report feeling “under siege,” and many declined to appear on camera, citing safety concerns.
Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee who blocked Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship last February, appeared on Sunday night’s episode. He described being visited by five sheriff’s deputies asking to speak to his wife after they received false reports that he had murdered her. He also received a bomb threat.
“Some of it was very, very ugly, and very threatening,” Coughenour said of the messages he received after calling Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“Death threats?” Whitaker asked. “Oh yes, yes, dozens of them. Dozens, if not hundreds,” Coughenour responded, noting that he’d never in his career received as many death threats despite having previously sentenced an al Qaeda bomber and members of militias.
“I’ve been at this for 44 years,” Coughenour told Whitaker. “I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year.”
“I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions. I think it’s because there are people who think that they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary.”
Several of the attacks have come from the president himself, who has dubbed judges who have ruled against him “lunatics” and “monsters.” He even lashed out at conservative Supreme Court justices, calling them a “disgrace to our nation” and “disloyal to the Constitution” after they ruled that he had overstepped his authority by attempting to impose his extreme tariff policies on other countries.
Judges interviewed by 60 Minutes told reporters that U.S. Marshals, who are tasked with identifying which threats could lead to physical violence, are overwhelmed after 400 federal judges received serious threats last year.
“In very plain English: if we’re not careful we’re gonna get a judge killed. It’s just that stark,” Judge John Jones, a George W. Bush appointee, told the program.
Now retired, Jones is one of the judges who have formed a group seeking to convince the White House to tone down its rhetoric. 60 Minutes did not name the group, though it appears to be The Article III Coalition, which describes itself as “a distinguished group of retired federal district and circuit court judges who stand united to speak about the separation of powers and the importance of an independent judiciary.”
“I think that [Trump is] attempting to delegitimize the federal courts,” Jones told 60 Minutes. When asked why he thought Trump would do that, Jones described his presidency as being “on steroids,” adding, “You have a very dormant, I think, United States Congress, and a president who means to really say what the law is.”
“Well, you know, civics taught me that Congress makes the law, and the president faithfully executes the laws of the country. We’ve turned that on its head right now.”
Obama-appointee Judge Esther Salas, one of the most outspoken judges on the issue of threats against the judiciary, told 60 Minutes, “I’m more concerned right now than I was after my only child was murdered.”
In 2020, a failed litigant visited her home, shot her husband and killed their son Daniel. While not a politically motivated crime, she worries that incendiary rhetoric risks making such horrific acts even more common.
“I think that the attacks against the judiciary are only getting worse,” she said. “What I am seeing now is far different than what I have seen in the past. This is coming from our national leader on down.”
“If you disagree with a ruling that we make, appeal us. If you disagree with a sentence we render, appeal us. The answer is not to dehumanize us. And that has been, I think, the active agenda as of late. I feel like sometimes our political leaders are playing Russian roulette with our lives.”
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast: “The federal judiciary has repeatedly endangered and obstructed the election choices of the American people with its unlawful rulings, and it has done so without consequence. The reality is, with 22 Supreme Court victories, the Administration’s policies have been consistently upheld as lawful, despite lower courts issuing an unprecedented number of lawless injunctions.”
“As the survivor of two assassination attempts, no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,” Jackson continued. “But any implication that highlighting the judiciary’s brazen defiance against a coequal branch is akin to making threats is deeply unserious and should be dismissed by anyone with half a brain. The Trump Administration cares deeply for the safety of all members of the Judicial Branch and will continue enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to fulfill.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has argued that the rulings against the Trump administration’s policies constitute a “war,” told the program that while some judges continue to issue “overbroad and even unreasoned injunctions,” he conceded that “threats and intimidation of federal officials is unlawful.”
