The office of the New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has been bombarded with death threats and antisemitic abuse following the former president’s online attacks.
Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk, Allison Greenfield, are said to have received hundreds of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages via telephone and social media.
Attorneys for the New York state court system made the case for the imposition of gag orders on Trump, citing “serious and credible” threats against Engoron and Greenfield.
Transcribed voicemail messages, disclosed in court filings, revealed the extent of the abuse directed at the pair. Alongside racist and sexist attacks the messages contain several death threats. “I mean, honestly, you should be assassinated,” said one. “You should be killed. You should be not assassin executed [sic]. You should be executed.”
It’s so exhausting to watch the system pretend not to understand the obvious when it’s the likes of Trump brazenly acting out gangster tropes, but when it’s a poor or minority person in even a legal gray area it’s the taser for them and the same crowd falling over itself to defend Trump will cheer to see it
They’re trying to make this case airtight in appeal. Judge Vaughn Walker took the same route when he struck down California’s same-sex marriage ban.
I hear that a lot, and I get that there’s a reason for how it is, but I still don’t understand why that means court officials must be made to endure more crimes without reaction or accountability or consequence in order for it to happen.
I’m not saying it’s wise, or will work, just that that is the reason for the court’s stoicism.