Justices get death threats after Trump disqualified from US presidency ballot
Colorado Supreme Court justices have faced death threats after disqualifying former president Donald Trump from the ballot..
After booting Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have reported "significant violent rhetoric" against the justices and Democrats following the ruling.
Donald Trump's posts about the Colorado Supreme Court on his platform Truth Social have seen some social media users post justices' email addresses, phone numbers, and office building addresses.
Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, organisation that conducts public interest research, saw dozens of threatening posts. "This ends when we kill these f**kers," a user wrote on a pro-Trump forum that was used by several January 6 rioters. "What do you call 7 justices from the Colorado Supreme Court at the bottom of the ocean?" asked another user. "A good start."
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Donald Trump's scandalous The Apprentice sacking and his unexpected replacementThe posts also showed a number of methods which threatened to kill the justices. One user said: "Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete," while another added: "Slam dunk a judge's baby into the trashcan."
Daniel J. Jones, the president Advance Democracy, said the violent threats and rhetoric was concerning. “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," Jones, a former FBI investigator and staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC News in a statement.
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"The normalisation of this type of violent rhetoric — and lack of remedial action by social media entities — is cause for significant concern," he said. "Trump’s statements, which have sought to delegitimise and politicise 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.”
The threats come after lawyers for former President Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to stand down from a dispute over whether he can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team last week urged the nation’s high court to take up and quickly consider Trump’s claims that he enjoys immunity from prosecution as a former president. The unusual request for a speedy ruling seemed designed to prevent any delays that could postpone the trial of the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, currently set to begin March 4, until after next year’s presidential election.
But Trump’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that there was no reason for them to take up the matter now, especially because a lower appeals court in Washington is already considering the same question, and has scheduled arguments for Janurary 9. “Importance does not automatically necessitate speed. If anything, the opposite is usually true. Novel, complex, sensitive, and historic issues — such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts — call for more careful deliberation, not less,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.