Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s Virginia home was the target of a swatting call on Wednesday night, police said.
In audio of the incident obtained by freelance journalist Andrew Leyden, the dispatcher relays the call about gunshots being fired, while noting that it may be a swatting attempt. Swatting is the reporting of nonexistent violent crime, usually to stir up an actual violent situation involving responding law enforcement or a SWAT team.
“Units responding to suspicious noise, be advised we have not been able to get an answer on callback to the complainant’s phone number,” the dispatcher says, noting the caller listed an address belonging to a “high-priority resident” of Fairfax County. “Unknown if it’s going to be a swatting situation.”
An officer who arrived at Barrett’s home then described meeting with her security detail.
“Just made contact with security that’s on scene,” he said. “They should be outside in an Explorer. He said he hasn’t heard anything. We’re just going to meet up with him first, just to go over anything.”
Ultimately, there was nothing amiss, police confirmed.
“Yesterday evening at approximately 9:02 p.m., officers responded to a swatting call at the residence of U.S. Supreme Court Justice in Fairfax County,” Fairfax police told National Review in a statement.
“The call was received through the department’s non-emergency line,” the statement added. “Officers immediately coordinated with Supreme Court Police personnel assigned to the residence and quickly determined that the report was fictitious. No additional police resources were utilized.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Fairfax County police and the Supreme Court for comment.
Swatting is illegal, with fines and prison time possible. Police have not announced an arrest.
Barrett, 54, is one of the three Trump appointees on the court, though sometimes it doesn’t seem like it, given the president’s angry comments about her.
In February, after she and fellow Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch voted to overturn his tariffs, the president labeled them a “disgrace to our nation,” “fools and lapdogs,” and “an embarrassment to their families.”
Earlier this month, he was still miffed: “They were appointed by me, and yet have hurt our Country so badly!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Last September, Barrett said in an interview that she was “nobody’s justice.”
