When the Supreme Court recently struck down President Trump’s tariffs, he lashed out at two Justices he had nominated, calling them “fools” and “lapdogs.” The president has frequently railed against judges when they rule against him. What often happens next is a barrage of violent threats from his followers against those judges.
We spoke with 26 federal judges—nine Democratic appointees, 17 Republican, both sitting and retired. The sitting judges told us they feel under siege. Most would not appear on camera, fearful for their safety. Judge John Coughenour, appointed by Ronald Reagan, is one of the few who would. He blocked President Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship. He wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“My wife and I are at home. And the doorbell rings. And I go to the door. And there’s, I think, five sheriff’s deputies there with long rifles.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“And they show up with guns drawn?”
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“Oh yeah. Yes, yes. Long guns, very intimidating guns. And they said to me, ‘Sir, could we see your wife?’ And I said, ‘Whatever for?’ And they said, ‘Well, sir, we’ve had a report that you’ve murdered your wife.’”
It was a cruel hoax. The next day? A bomb threat.
For John Coughenour, a federal district court judge in Washington state, it didn’t end there.
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“There was a congressman that had a wanted poster. It just said ‘Wanted’ in big letters at the top and then a picture of several of us. It said everything except ‘dead or alive.’”
His trouble started when President Trump signed an executive order to end the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship for infants born on U.S. soil to non-citizens. Judge Coughenour ruled it, quote, “blatantly unconstitutional.” The threats poured in.
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“Some of it was very, very ugly, and very threatening.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“Death threats?”
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“Oh yes, yes, dozens of them. Dozens if not hundreds.”
Judge Coughenour told us threats come with the turf. He has sentenced an al Qaeda bomber and Montana militia members and needed round-the-clock protection. But he said he’d never had as many death threats as with the birthright citizenship case.
**Judge John Coughenour:**
“I’ve been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year. And I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions. I think it’s because there are people who think that they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary.”
—
**President Trump (2025):**
“And also we cannot allow a handful of communist radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States.”
When President Trump lost a battle in court to deport migrants, he called the judge a lunatic. When immigration crackdowns were ruled illegal, he called the judges monsters. It’s incendiary comments like that that have provoked a torrent of death threats.
Our reporting found hundreds of threats were left on judges’ voicemails. This one after a judge ruled the president had violated the First Amendment:
**Recording of threat:**
“I hope your whole family and everybody you love is raped in front of you and has their heads cut off.”
And this one after a judge ruled the president couldn’t cut certain government benefits:
**Recording of threat:**
“I wish somebody would f****** assassinate your ass.”
It’s a volcano of vitriol.
**Recording of threat:**
“I double dare you to try to put charges on Donald J. Trump. You son of a bitch.”
It falls to the U.S. Marshals to pinpoint the verbal threats that might lead to physical violence. Judges told us the Marshals are overwhelmed. Last year, 400 federal judges were targets of serious threats, a 78% jump in four years.
**Judge Jones:**
“In very plain English: if we’re not careful, we’re gonna get a judge killed. It’s just that stark.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“It’s that serious?”
**Judge Jones:**
“It’s that serious.”
Judge John Jones is a retired federal judge from Pennsylvania, a George W. Bush appointee. He and 55 other retired judges were so concerned they formed a bipartisan group to lobby the White House to stop demonizing judges.
**Judge Jones:**
“This is such a toxic environment, where people are taking arms, and can identify where a judge lives, can strike out against that judge or the judge’s family members.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“So when President Trump attacks judges as rogue, deranged, corrupt, what do you think he’s doing and why?”
**Judge Jones:**
“I think that he’s attempting to delegitimize the federal courts.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“Why would he do that? What’s the benefit to him?”
**Judge Jones:**
“It’s a presidency sort of on steroids. And you have a very dormant, I think, United States Congress, and a president who means to really say what the law is. Well, you know, civics taught me that Congress makes the law, and the president faithfully executes the laws of the country. We’ve turned that on its head right now.”
Judge Jones told us this White House is testing the bounds of presidential power. Today the Trump administration is facing 600 lawsuits contesting its agenda, from immigration to job cuts. Judges are caught squarely in the crossfire.
—
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“As a judge who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend the rule of law, I have a duty to call this out. That’s why I’m talking to you.”
Judge Esther Salas is a federal district court judge in New Jersey. A Barack Obama appointee, she has become a leading voice against the personal attacks on judges, which has made her the target of death threats. She knows the stakes.
In 2020, a failed litigant came to her front door, shot her son Daniel dead, and wounded her husband Mark. It was not driven by politics, but she fears today’s inflammatory rhetoric makes such horrors more likely.
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“I’m more concerned right now than I was after my only child was murdered—”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“Why?”
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“Because I think that the attacks against the judiciary are only getting worse. What I am seeing now is far different than what I have seen in the past. This is coming from our national leader on down.”
Judge Salas told us vilifying judges is eroding trust in the courts.
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“If you disagree with a ruling that we make, appeal us. If you disagree with a sentence we render, appeal us. The answer is not to dehumanize us. And that has been, I think, the active agenda as of late. I feel like sometimes our political leaders are playing Russian roulette with our lives.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“Do you think the rhetoric emboldens people?”
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“I do. I think it’s dangerous.”
—
In a statement, the White House said, “As a survivor of two assassination attempts no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump.” It went on to accuse the judiciary of “brazen defiance” with its “unlawful rulings.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called it a war.
**Todd Blanche:**
“We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals because of local judges just not following the law, full stop. And it’s the same judges, or not the same judges but there’s a group of judges that are repeat players. And that’s obviously not by happenstance. That’s intentional. And it’s a, it’s a war, man.”
Todd Blanche declined our request for an interview. In a statement to us, he said some judges continue to issue “overbroad and even unreasoned injunctions,” but added “threats and intimidation of federal officials is unlawful.”
Judge John Coughenour told us the Constitution is a judge’s north star.
**Bill Whitaker:**
“So to someone who says that you are a political agent and trying to thwart the goals of the president, you would say?”
**Judge Coughenour:**
“I would say you don’t understand what we do. We apply the Constitution. For the last 250 years in this country, it’s been the judges that say this is either constitutional or it isn’t. If nobody is going to make that decision and nobody’s gonna enforce the Constitution, it becomes like the Constitution of Russia.”
—
The threats aren’t just coming from the right. In 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would, quote, “pay the price” for restricting abortion. He later apologized. In 2022, a would-be assassin was arrested for trying to kill Justice Kavanaugh at his home.
But Judge Jones, a Republican appointee, told us the violent language of the right has no match.
**Judge Jones:**
“The national rhetoric from both sides has probably gotten worse over time. However, I would not concede that the Democratic party or Democratic office holders have conducted themselves in any way that’s similar to what this administration is doing with respect to the federal judiciary. There’s simply no evidence of that.”
—
**Ron Zayas:**
“And when you look at the database, it’s the names and addresses of hundreds of elected officials and judges—”
Ron Zayas is the CEO of Ironwall, a company that scrubs judges’ personal data from the web. Zayas told us in 14 years, he has never seen as many violent threats as today.
**Ron Zayas:**
“You know, if you broadcast that message to a million people, you just need one to act on it. And that’s the terrifying part that judges are having to deal with today.”
Zayas also combs through the dark web, a criminal haven on the internet where anonymous threat actors try to cause real-world harm. These days, Zayas is worried about a new type of threat.
**Ron Zayas:**
“The threats used to be, ‘you ruled against me and I wanna kill you.’ Now the kind of threats we’re seeing — there’s a whole other sphere of saying ‘I wanna influence what you do.’ It’s mob mentality. They wanna threaten you so that you make the right decision.”
The Marshals are also investigating a striking new form of intimidation: hundreds of unsolicited pizzas sent to judges and their children across the country, an innocuous delivery with an ominous message.
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“We know where you live. We know where your children live. And do you want to end up like Judge Salas’s son?”
At least 20 were sent to homes in the name of Judge Salas’s late son.
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“The order form had my murdered son’s name on it. They’re weaponizing my baby boy. They’re weaponizing Daniel’s name to inflict fear on judges.”
**Bill Whitaker:**
“I know that’s shocking, but it must be so, so painful.”
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“Oh, you know. That one took me. And you add to that, for flavor, that I have yet to see the attorney general or the deputy attorney general stand at a podium and denounce these forms of intimidation.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also declined our request for an interview.
Judge Salas, among many others, told us the rule of law is at stake.
**Judge Esther Salas:**
“I sit here as Daniel’s mom. I sit here as a woman who lost her only child. Mark and I have been to hell and back. And when I see that kind of irresponsible behavior coming from our political leaders and people in power, it makes me sad. And it makes me very worried, because I worry for our democracy, I really do.”
—
*Produced by Heather Abbott. Associate producer, Paulina Smolinski. Broadcast associate, Mariah Johnson. Edited by Sean Kelly.*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-judges-whove-ruled-against-trump-administration-denounce-threats-60-minutes-transcript/
