U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, whose son died and her husband was injured in an attack that meant to her, says the gunman also had his eyes set on the associate judge of the United States District Court. Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor. Salas first reveals that authorities found a dossier on Sotomayor in a closet used by his assailant, 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 on the dramatic increase in the number of threats against federal judges in the U.S. that will air on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. ET / PT on CBS.
The death of his son sent Salas on a crusade to pass legislation that would scrutinize the personal information of Internet judges. When he found out what the FBI found in the locker room, he realized he wasn’t the only one in Hollander’s sight. “They found another weapon, a Glock, more ammunition. But the most troubling thing they found was a Manila folder with a work on Judge Sonia Sotomayor,” says Salas. She says it was creepy to see a member of the Supreme Court in her gaze. “Who knows what might have happened? But we need to understand that judges are at risk,” he tells Whitaker. “That we put ourselves in great danger every day to do our job.”
Salas said 60 minutes in the months following his son’s death, judges have continued to face new threats. He shared a few examples, one of them saying, “We,” “we have to quote,” we have to start killing these corrupt politicians and judges and their families to “finish the appointment.”
Threats to federal judges have increased 400 percent in the past five years and exceeded 4,000 incidents. These include hate mail, phone harassment, protests in his home and the actual assassination attempt. U.S. marshals, who protect federal judges, are asking for 1,000 more officers at a cost of $ 250 million. The new bill that supports Salas also calls for several million more to upgrade judges ’home security systems.
Whitaker also speaks with District High Court Judge James Robart, the temporary blockade of then-President Trump’s travel ban resulted in 40,000 unprecedented messages, including more than a hundred death threats. Critics called him a “walking dead man” and posted his phone number and address on social media. President Trump then ignited the situation by ridiculing Robart as a “so-called judge.”
“When you call someone the so-called judge, what you do is attack the judiciary … I thought I had a right to challenge my decision. I don’t think criticizing a judge is acceptable,” he told Whitaker, adding among the threats. he had hurt his family.
Investigators discovered thousands of threats against Robart that appeared to be American, but were actually from Russia. This comes as no surprise to Suzanne Spaulding, who led cybersecurity operations for Republican and Democratic administrations. “If Putin can undermine a significant segment of the population’s willingness to accept a court decision, then it can cause chaos in that country,” Spaulding says.