Two judges overseeing cases against former President Donald Trump were targeted by ‘swatting’ style threats in the past week. Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil fraud case against Trump, was targeted Thursday morning with a bomb threat—hours before closing arguments were slated to begin.
Multiple outlets reported a bomb threat against Engoron was sent via email to a Long Island newspaper Thursday morning, which relayed the message to law enforcement. Officers who responded to Engoron’s home found no threat.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his business of lying to banks and insurers about the value of his assets. Trump has repeatedly denounced the case as “election interference.”
Trump has put the judge on blast multiple times on Truth Social. In December, he called Engoron “a completely biased Democrat.”
Trump complained that Engoron denied his lawyers’ “motion to have this political SHAM of a case dismissed,” adding that “Engoron doesn’t discuss HIS Valuation of Mar-a-Lago at $18 Million, when it is worth at least 50 to 100 times that amount, but does discuss insignificant items that, when added up, are irrelevant and a very minimal part of my Financial Statements.”
Trump fans were also furious yesterday that Engoron denied a request for Trump to deliver his own closing argument.
The swatting of Engoron comes days after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was similarly targeted.
Chutkan, who is handling Trump’s federal election interference case, was swatted at her home in Washington D.C. on Sunday. Police said in a statement that they responded around 10pm to a false report of a shooting.
Like Engoron, Chutkan has frequently been mentioned by name in Trump’s Truth Social posts.
In late October, Trump wrote of Chutkan: “The Obama appointed Federal Judge in D.C, a TRUE TRUMP HATER, is incapable of giving me a fair trial. Her Hatred of President DONALD J. TRUMP is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major, and incurable, case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!!!”
The special counsel handling the case before Chutkan—attorney Jack Smith—was also targeted in a swatting call on Christmas Day.
Chutkan imposed a limited gag order that prevented Trump from publicly targeting court officials and witnesses.
“Undisputed testimony cited by the government demonstrates that when Defendant has publicly attacked individuals, including on matters related to this case, those individuals are consequently threatened and harassed,” she wrote.
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/arthur-engoron-bomb-threat-tanya-chutkan-swatting-trump/