US District Court Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed and her husband wounded in an attack directed at her, said the shooter was also eyeing Supreme Court associate judge Sonia Sotomayor. Salas reveals for the first time that authorities found a dossier on Sotomayor in a cabinet used by his attacker, Roy Den Hollander, a lawyer who had a case before Salas and committed suicide after killing his son, Daniel. Salas appears in a report by Bill Whitaker about the dramatic increase in the number of threats against federal judges in the United States to be broadcast on Sunday, February 21, at 7 pm ET / PT on CBS.
Her son’s death sent Salas on a crusade to pass legislation that would erase personal information from Internet judges. When he heard what the FBI found in the closet, he realized that he wasn’t the only one in Hollander ‘s sights. “They found another weapon, a Glock, plus ammunition. But the most worrying thing they found was a manila folder with an investigation into Judge Sonia Sotomayor, ”says Salas. She says it was scary to see a member of the Supreme Court in her sights. “Who knows what could have happened? But we need to understand that judges are at risk, ”she says to Whitaker. “That we put ourselves in great danger every day for doing our job.”
Salas told 60 Minutes in the months after his son’s death, the judges continued to face new threats. She shared some examples, one of which read: “‘We,'” quote, ‘we must start killing these corrupt politicians and judges and their families’, final quote. “
Threats to federal judges have increased by 400% in the past five years, to more than 4,000 incidents. This includes hate letters, telephone harassment, protests at home and attempted real murder. The US Marshals, which protect federal judges, are asking for an additional 1,000 police officers at a cost of $ 250 million. The new bill Salas is supporting is also calling for several million more to update judges’ home security systems.
Whitaker also speaks with senior District Court judge James Robart, whose temporary blocking of then President Trump’s travel ban resulted in an unprecedented 40,000 messages, including more than a hundred death threats. Critics called him a “dead man walking” and posted his phone number and address on social media. President Trump then ignited the situation by ridiculing Robart as an “alleged judge”.
“When you call someone a supposed judge, what you do is attack the judiciary … I thought he had the right to attack my decision. I don’t think criticizing a judge is acceptable, ”he says to Whitaker, adding that the threats included hurting his family.
Investigators found that thousands of threats against Robart appeared to be from Americans, but were actually from Russia. This does not surprise Suzanne Spaulding, who directed cybersecurity operations for the Republican and Democratic governments. “If Putin can undermine a significant segment of the population’s willingness to accept a court decision, it can cause chaos in this country,” said Spaulding.