Washington — The 15 feedback got here throughout a sequence of eight days in July, posted beneath pseudonyms alluding to the perpetrators of among the most notorious mass shootings in U.S. historical past, together with Sandy Hook Elementary College and Aurora, Colorado.
“That POS Decide … MUST have her life ENDED Instantly! Get it completed, Patriots!!” learn one submit, referring to a federal decide in California.
One other named members of Congress: “That is GREAT! Now I can use a, high-powered firearm to care for [four members of Congress], and the Squad members … for starters! Want me Luck.”
The posts focused a Supreme Court docket justice, seven federal judges and 11 lawmakers, and included what prosecutors mentioned had been “thinly veiled racial epithets.”
The feedback, posted in response to information articles, had been traced again to a Minnesota man, Jeffrey Petersen, who admitted to the FBI that he was behind among the postings and acknowledged they “received out of hand,” based on prosecutors’ filings. Petersen was first indicted final October on 20 counts and pleaded not responsible.
His lawyer is looking for to have the costs dismissed, arguing that Petersen was partaking in speech protected by the First Modification. Whereas the feedback might have expressed needs of demise, they did not point out Petersen had any plans to kill the officers, his protection lawyer mentioned.
Petersen is considered one of 126 individuals charged final 12 months for making threats to federal and prime state officers, based on a CBS Information evaluation of courtroom information from all 94 federal judicial districts. CBS Information examined instances introduced beneath federal statutes that make it against the law to threaten to kill or hurt the president and successors to the presidency, and to transmit threatening communications.
The Nationwide Counterterrorism Innovation, Expertise, and Training Middle on the College of Nebraska at Omaha and the Prosecution Mission additionally contributed knowledge.
The threats which have resulted in fees don’t discriminate of their targets. They had been leveled in opposition to officers working in all three branches of presidency — from judges to members of Congress to legislation enforcement officers to President Trump and former President Joe Biden — and directed at these within the highest ranges of state authorities.
The amount of instances marks a greater than three-fold enhance within the variety of federal prosecutions arising out of threats to public officers over the previous decade. 2025 surpassed 2024 in threats-related instances, based on NCITE.
The rise underscores the present panorama for federal officers who had been elected to workplace, appointed to their roles or employed to implement the legislation. In in the present day’s surroundings, they face a barrage of threats on social media and in voicemails and emails, and have been swatted or doxxed.
“If I had been in my 30s or 40s with younger youngsters at dwelling and enthusiastic about happening the federal bench, one of many elements [to consider] is that we could also be exposing ourselves to attainable violence,” U.S. District Decide John Coughenour, who sits on the courtroom in Seattle, informed CBS Information.
Coughenour was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and has had safety particulars in response to threats a handful of occasions in his 45 years as a decide, he mentioned, together with when he presided over the trial of leaders of an anti-government group within the late Nineties.
However Coughenour mentioned the threats he has obtained in latest months are extra express and extra frequent than what he is skilled earlier than.
The decide mentioned he was swatted, an unlawful scheme through which individuals make pretend emergency calls to attract SWAT groups to the properties of public figures. The FBI additionally informed him there was a bomb in his home, Coughenour recalled. He mentioned he is additionally obtained lots of of threatening voicemails and different communications.
Final 12 months, Coughenour blocked an government order from Mr. Trump that sought to finish birthright citizenship, saying it was “blatantly unconstitutional.” Mr. Trump had referenced Coughenour’s choice within the Oval Workplace, saying “there is no surprises with that decide.” Coughenour’s picture additionally appeared on a “wished” poster displayed outdoors the workplace of Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, which described him and different judges as “recognized get-Trump judicial activists.”
“The prior 40 years that I’ve spent on the bench, every now and then, individuals can be crucial of selections we make, and that is to be anticipated,” Coughenour mentioned. “Half the those who come earlier than us for trial are going to be sad with the end result. But it surely had by no means earlier than reached the extent the place the president and the lawyer common and the president’s employees had been making hypercritical feedback and calling judges monsters and referring to a judicial coup. Issues like that, that is all new. I’ve by no means skilled that earlier than.”
A “marked decline in civility”
Within the final fiscal 12 months, there have been 564 threats in opposition to judges, up from 509 in fiscal 12 months 2024, based on knowledge from the U.S. Marshals Service, which is liable for offering safety to members of the federal judiciary. From the start of October to the top of January, the company mentioned there have been 176 threats to judges.
Chief Justice John Roberts mentioned in his 2024 year-end report on the federal judiciary that the variety of threats and communications concentrating on judges had tripled over the prior decade.
“There was a really marked decline in civility and the respect for the rule of legislation in our society during the last variety of years,” one Trump-appointed federal decide, who requested to not be recognized, informed CBS Information. “When a person or a gaggle of people disagrees with a call — on this case, a call by a courtroom — they then start to assault the establishment of the courtroom by way of the people who could also be making the choice. That tendency did not exist once I began.”
The decide mentioned that during the last 12 months, there have been emailed demise threats directed in opposition to his partner and social media posts that accused him of being corrupt.
“While you name a decisionmaker corrupt for no official cause, if you assault them personally, that then causes the general public to, at a minimal, query whether or not their establishments are in truth sturdy and trustworthy and serving the Structure and the individuals as they’re designed to do,” the decide mentioned.
CBS Information discovered that of the 126 prosecutions from final 12 months, 12 included threats in opposition to judges. Forty-one concerned threats made in opposition to Mr. Trump and former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama; and 29 of the prosecutions concerned defendants accused of concentrating on federal legislation enforcement, together with brokers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Threatening messages directed at members of Congress had been cited in 21 instances.
Different authorities officers — together with Cupboard members, senior Trump administration officers, federal workers and unnamed political figures — had been cited in 50 instances.
Seamus Hughes, an knowledgeable on counterterrorism and extremism at NCITE, mentioned during the last 12 months, there was a dramatic shift within the quantity of threats to legislation enforcement brokers, who’ve more and more change into a goal for individuals with grievances in opposition to the federal government. The variety of prosecutions stemming from threats to these brokers possible displays elevated information protection of Mr. Trump’s mass deportation marketing campaign and the administration prioritizing defending officers, he mentioned.
“The federal prosecutions let you know, ‘That is the place we’ve got pores and skin within the recreation, the place we’re really going to place our finger on the dimensions and attempt to tamp down on this,'” Hughes mentioned.
On the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, there have been extra prosecutions involving threats to schooling and public-health officers. In 2020, instances had been introduced in opposition to those that sought to intimidate election officers, Hughes mentioned.
Whereas the variety of threats-related prosecutions marked a brand new excessive, the universe of regarding statements directed at individuals in public service — lots of them vile, disturbing and violent — is much broader.
The U.S. Capitol Police reported final month that it investigated 14,938 “regarding statements, behaviors and communications” directed in opposition to lawmakers, their households, employees and the Capitol complicated itself final 12 months. That determine was up from 9,474 in 2024 and simply over 8,000 in 2023.
Throughout a latest listening to from the Home Judiciary Committee, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California appealed to Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi to make sure individuals menacing lawmakers are held accountable. He recalled a number of situations of obscene and violent messages directed at him final 12 months, and lamented that prosecutors declined to carry fees. On one event, a caller left 11 voicemails with Swalwell’s district workplace, together with one through which he mentioned, “I will hunt him down, that motherf***er, and toss his ass over the Golden Gate Bridge by my f***ing self,” based on Swalwell.
“The president can come after me, it is fantastic. I am within the enviornment. So are these of us,” he mentioned, referring to his fellow lawmakers. “However we by no means anticipated that the Division of Justice wouldn’t search to prosecute and examine those that are making threats in opposition to us, and that would come with these on that aspect of the aisle. I am asking to your assist to guard life as a result of life is in danger with the surroundings we’re in proper now.”
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Bondi agreed that “none of you have to be threatened” and mentioned the Justice Division is engaged in ongoing investigations.
“We now have a accountability to prosecute these instances and to guard victims who’re the unlucky recipient of those threats,” Gregory Kehoe, the U.S. lawyer for the Center District of Florida, informed CBS Information. “When the individual speaking it does it recklessly, and he does it in such a method that he recklessly believes that what he does will probably be considered as a risk, then that is against the law. Then we’ve got to take that fairly critically. So let’s separate the train of free speech from threats over the wires or over the mails, and many others., as a result of we get each of them, and threats to injure one other human being over the wires or within the mails.”
The area Kehoe oversees stretches from Jacksonville, in Florida’s northeast nook, right down to Orlando, west to Ocala and Tampa, and south to Fort Myers. CBS Information recognized at the very least 17 instances involving threats to authorities officers and legislation enforcement that had been prosecuted by his workplace final 12 months, probably the most from any of the 94 judicial districts.
Kehoe, who served as a prosecutor for greater than 20 years and was tapped as U.S. lawyer final March, mentioned threats and the felony instances arising from them have elevated dramatically.
“It is our job to raise the attention and say, this isn’t going to be tolerated, and those who do that are going to be prosecuted,” he mentioned. “If individuals do that they usually’re not prosecuted, individuals are going to come back be of the idea that it is OK, and it isn’t.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, mentioned members of Congress and their households are dealing with rising ranges of toxicity and violent rhetoric.
In an interview with CBS Information, she rattled off defendants who had been convicted for threatening her. One man from New York pleaded responsible in 2023 and was sentenced to 3 months in jail for making threatening calls to her workplace. One other man from Georgia claimed he would shoot her within the head. Greene additionally recalled one incident the place a syringe was positioned in her mailbox with a demise risk.
“It is an excessive amount of,” she mentioned. “This is not what individuals run for workplace for. And regardless of whether or not you agree with a member of Congress or disagree with a member of Congress, they’re representing their district, and their district voted for them. So to some People, their views could also be excessive, however to that district, they hold getting reelected again and again. To that district, that is not excessive.”
In July, a Maryland man who made eight telephone calls to Greene’s district workplace between October 2023 and January 2025 was charged with threatening to assault and homicide Greene and her household. The threats escalated over that 15-month span, based on prosecutors, and culminated with a voicemail that warned she and her employees “had been nearly as good as lifeless.”
Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures 
The caller, Seth Jason, informed Greene to “make your final will prepared, as a result of we’re coming after you, and the one factor you are going to hear is bang … I am craving to listen to you cry to your final breath.” He pleaded responsible in December and will probably be sentenced in June.
Greene mentioned the time between a responsible plea or conviction to when a defendant in the end experiences to jail to start serving a sentence might be scary and irritating.
“Not solely the risk is frightening, it is the truth that this individual admits guilt, pleads responsible after which is distributed dwelling earlier than they’re ever despatched to jail. You marvel, effectively, they’ve already pleaded responsible to it, are they prepared to observe by way of on it earlier than they go to jail?” she mentioned. “That is surprising to me. So you may’t let your guard down. You possibly can’t really feel secure though that individual has been convicted.”
Members of Congress have taken steps to guard themselves, comparable to by putting in safety methods at their properties, arming themselves or hiring private safety. Final November, Congress permitted laws that supplied $203.5 million to spice up safety for lawmakers. Every senators’ workplace obtained a further $750,000 to pay for enhanced safety measures, together with at their residences. About $100 million went towards bolstering safety for Home members and their households.
Greene, who served 5 years within the Home and resigned Jan. 5, mentioned she carries a gun and practices capturing.
From threats to motion
Shannon Hiller, government director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton College, attributed the present risk surroundings to the rise of social media and lockdowns through the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, native officers reported adjustments within the tone and quantity of vitriolic messages, and that hasn’t subsided within the years since, she mentioned.
Moreover, there was a local weather of dehumanizing rhetoric by the nation’s leaders, in addition to a normalization of using threats and harassment in opposition to these on the opposite aspect of a difficulty, Hiller mentioned.
“You could have threats and harassment getting used and normalized in politics and you’ve got leaders all the best way on the prime and down being prepared to make use of it,” she informed CBS Information. “So even for officers who might need to converse up in opposition to it, they’re apprehensive about threats themselves. That creates this continuous detrimental suggestions. If there is no sanction from inside both get together, inside neighborhood members, to say, ‘That is unacceptable in our politics,’ then that habits will proceed.”
Hiller warned {that a} consequence of in the present day’s panorama is fewer individuals prepared to serve in public workplace and, for individuals who are serving, a concern that partaking with constituencies in public settings might put them in peril.
“Once we see all of those dynamics 12 months after 12 months and proceed to worsen, that is what will get us nearer to some incident or escalation creating broader battle and threat of violence,” she mentioned. “A part of what this local weather of hostility in our politics does is create the tinder for extra battle slightly than having our civic areas be a spot the place we will really feel assured we will peacefully and constructively resolve our variations.”
That threat turned actuality late final month, when a person assaulted Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, throughout a city corridor in Minneapolis. The alleged perpetrator, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, charged at Omar with a syringe in his hand and sprayed her with a liquid. Police later decided it to be apple cider vinegar and water.
Kazmierczak faces a federal assault cost in addition to state fees. He has not but entered a plea.
Omar mentioned after the assault that she sees demise threats in opposition to her “skyrocket” after Mr. Trump makes use of “hateful rhetoric” to speak about her.
Octavio JONES /AFP by way of Getty Pictures 
The president has repeatedly demonized Omar within the seven years since she started serving within the Home. Mr. Trump has known as her a “pretend sleazebag” and “rubbish,” and instructed on quite a few events that she ought to “return” to her dwelling nation, Somalia.
“It might be anyone in Congress,” Greene mentioned concerning the Omar assault. “I believe most People are actually getting fed up with simply the fixed fueling of poisonous politics that come from each side. And I simply suppose it is unlucky that it is concern and anger that’s utilized by political campaigns and politics to drive individuals to vote and donate.”
Threats focused at jurists and the president have additionally materialized into political violence.
Mr. Trump was the sufferer of two tried assassinations in 2024, together with the capturing at a marketing campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one lifeless and the president and two others injured.
Two years prior, after the leak of a draft Supreme Court docket opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, a person from California was detained outdoors Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland dwelling armed with a handgun, knife and myriad instruments. The defendant, who was arrested and charged as Nicholas Roske however now goes by Sophie Roske, pleaded responsible final April to trying to kill or kidnap a Supreme Court docket justice.
Prosecutors mentioned Roske aimed to kill three members of the excessive courtroom and researched their dwelling addresses. Roske was sentenced to 97 months in jail final October.
Two years earlier, Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of U.S. District Decide Esther Salas was shot and killed at their New Jersey dwelling. Her husband, Mark, was shot thrice. The gunman, a disgruntled lawyer, had been stalking the household and had info on their every day actions, together with the routes Salas took to work and the place they attended church, based on the FBI.
“I consider threats just like the temper music,” Hughes mentioned. “They at all times play within the background, they trigger a degree of concern. And there will probably be a subset of individuals from that who see these pictures and bulletins and say it is time to take motion.”
The title of Salas’ son has been invoked by perpetrators of hoaxes often known as “pizza doxxing,” which entails sending pizza to a goal’s dwelling in an try to scare them. Roughly two dozen federal judges have reported receiving unsolicited deliveries for Anderl.
In an interview with CBS Information final 12 months, Salas known as the tried pizza deliveries “psychological warfare” in opposition to judges.
To fight the rise in political violence, Hiller mentioned there are short-term steps that may be taken, like enhancing safety at public conferences and making certain there are enough private knowledge protections, in addition to long-term options, comparable to countering a normalization of hostility and holding perpetrators accountable.
“It sounds primary, however individuals actually have to simply accept it does not should be this fashion,” she mentioned.
Coughenour, the decide from Washington, too, mentioned issues should change.
“We will not go on the best way that we’re in the present day,” he mentioned. “I’ve typically mentioned that I fear that this nation is nearer to civil struggle than it is ever been in my lifetime, however certainly this, too, will move.”
