In just 24 hours after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling that blocked former President Donald Trump from the state’s electoral ballot, a flood of violent and hate-filled messages hit the judges.
Among them were outright death threats, with addresses and other personal details being widely shared.
“What do you call 7 justices from the Colorado Supreme Court at the bottom of the ocean?” a social media user asked. “A good start.”
Many of the comments, first reported by NBC News, were posted in response to Trump’s responses to the ruling on his Truth Social platform.
“This ends when we kill these f—ers,” a post on a pro-Trump internet forum wrote.
The nonpartisan group Advance Democracy, which conducts public interest research, issued a report into the messages, It found justices’ home and office addresses, email addresses and phone numbers posted online.
Messages detailed in the group’s reports on the threats included mentions of weapons including hollow-point bullets, rifles, rope and bombs.
“Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete,” one online post read.
Another read, “Slam dunk a judge’s baby into the trashcan.”
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Similar threats were targeted at Trump’s perceived enemies after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home and after every one of his indictments. In Fulton County, jury members had to be protected after a flood of hate hit them following his arraignment on racketeering charges. Their home addresses were posted online.
A federal appeals court mentioned the pattern of threats when it upheld a gag order against Trump in his election interference case earlier this month.
“We are seeing significant violent language and threats being made against the Colorado justices and others perceived to be behind yesterday’s Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI investigator and the president of Advance Democracy, told NBC News.
“The normalization of this type of violent rhetoric — and lack of remedial action by social media entities — is cause for significant concern.”
“Trump’s statements, which have sought to delegitimize and politicize the actions of the courts, is serving as a key driver of the violent rhetoric. Political leaders on both sides of the political aisle need to speak out against these calls for violence, and social media platforms need to reassess their role in hosting and promoting this rhetoric.”
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