Veteran Judge Blames Trump Rhetoric for Rising Judicial Threats

A senior Washington federal judge said that President Donald Trump’s “vitriolic attacks” against the judiciary have led to an increase in violent threats, in a rare rebuke of the president by name from a sitting judge.

Trump, since winning reelection in 2024, has “ratcheted up to a new level his personal, vitriolic attacks on judges who have ruled against him or with whom he disagrees,” Senior Judge Paul Friedman of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in a speech to lawyers and judges earlier this year, according to a copy of prepared remarks provided by the judge.

These attacks “have gotten more partisan, more personal, more threatening, and more purposefully misleading than ever before,” Friedman said. Combined with Trump’s “incitement” of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol and eventual pardons of those rioters, they’ve “contributed significantly” toward a trend of threatening judges, he said.

“The President knows that mob mentality is a powerful force. And dog whistles count, too,” Friedman said, according to the remarks.

Friedman, a Clinton appointee, delivered the March 12 speech, which hasn’t been previously reported, at a keynote dinner for the annual meeting of the Academy of Court-Appointed Neutrals in Berkeley, California. He called on lawyers at the event to help restore respect for the courts and defend the rule of law.

Friedman is the latest judge to warn about rising threats to the judges and how they impact the judicial system’s independence.

However, the senior judge, who has spent over three decades on the Washington federal bench, took his warning further than some others have. Friedman named Trump specifically and directly blamed his rhetoric for the rise in violent threats against his colleagues.

Friedman, in his prepared remarks, recounted specific comments Trump made about the judges who oversaw the various criminal and civil cases against him in a personal capacity. He also highlighted Trump’s remarks about those who have ruled against him since he returned to office.

Trump has called Washington’s Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg, who ruled against deportations of alleged gang members under a wartime authority, a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge,” and referred to Supreme Court justices who ruled against him on his signature tariffs as “fools and lapdogs.”

However, the president praises judges he appointed who rule for him, he said.

“Apparently judges who rule for President Trump—like Judges Aileen Cannon in Florida in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas in the FDA approval of mifepristone case—are just wonderful, while those who rule against him are lunatics, agitators, fools, and insurrectionists,” Friedman said.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, threw out a criminal case against Trump over his handling of classified documents at his Florida resort. Kacsmaryk, also a Trump appointee, blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in 2023.

Friedman also accused the president of having “weaponized” the Justice Department “against his political enemies,” including by targeting law firms and universities. And he said the Republican-controlled Congress “is complicit” in the president’s actions.

“It almost never second-guesses the President or joins in legislation designed to curb his excesses—even when one of his executive orders violates a statute enacted by Congress,” the judge said.

He further pointed the finger at the US Supreme Court, which he said has ruled for the administration the majority of the time on its so-called emergency docket, where it issues typically short orders in cases at early stages.

“The constant attack on courts by the Administration and the acquiescence by Congress and the Supreme Court further undermines trust in the courts and the impartiality of judges and their rulings,” Friedman said.

Friedman has sat on the Washington federal trial court since 1994, and he took a form of semi-retirement in 2009. He is currently overseeing litigation challenging the Department of Defense’s policies to restrict press access to the Pentagon. Friedman sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in an April ruling, finding the restrictions violated a court order and represented a dangerous “curtailment of First Amendment rights.”

Rising Tensions

Threats to federal judges and other public officials have increased in recent years. The US Marshals Service logged 564 threats against federal judges in fiscal 2025, up from 403 three years earlier.

Tensions between the judiciary and the executive branch have also heightened during the current administration. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a legal conference in November the administration is at “war” with the federal judiciary, and top Justice Department officials have filed misconduct complaints—since dismissed—against judges overseeing legal challenges.

Republican lawmakers have filed impeachment resolutions against some judges who have ruled against the administration in court, though the effort hasn’t advanced.

Federal judges, often hesitant to speak publicly outside of the courtroom, have started speaking out against what they’ve described as threats to the independence of the courts. The judiciary issued an advisory opinion in February clarifying that judges may discuss the role of courts and related topics.

Senior Judge John Bates, another veteran Washington judge, condemned verbal attacks on judges that undermine the institution at a conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania earlier this month. He said these attacks have become “more personal” and are intended to “pressure judges to rule for the administration.” Bates pointed to Congress and “leaders of the executive branch” in his remarks, but didn’t directly name the president.

Senior Judge Reggie Walton in Washington took the rare step of giving a television interview in 2024, on CNN, decrying the rise of threats against federal judges and their families.

—with assistance from Zoe Tillman (Bloomberg News)