Agency That Guards Judges Sent 75 Deputy Marshals in DC Takeover

The Justice Department agency that protects federal judges has deployed dozens of agents to Washington as part of the Trump administration’s federal takeover of the city’s local police, as threats against the judiciary continue to climb.

The US Marshals Service has sent over 75 deputy marshals for the operation, which involves multiple federal and local agencies, an agency spokesperson said Thursday. Some of the deployed agents came from the Washington federal trial court and superior court, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The diversion could put more pressure on resources at the agency, which has operated under a flat budget for the past two fiscal years amid congressional stalemate over government funding levels. Threats to judiciary officials are also on the rise, with more than 400 threats to federal judges logged from October through mid-June.

“Anytime the agency and its employees are given a mission set that is not in line with their regular mission, there’s going to be an impact,” said Carl Caulk, the agency’s former assistant director.

Still, former officials said the agency is prepared for special assignments and that deploying 75 deputy marshals likely wouldn’t seriously compromise its judicial security work. That’s about two percent of the agency’s roughly 3,900 deputy US marshals and criminal investigators, according to a Marshals Service fact sheet.

It is “not unusual in our history” for deputy marshals to carry out attorney general orders that depart from their typical responsibilities, and “adaptability to changing priorities is not new,” said Noel March, former US Marshal for the district of Maine.

“They’re just offering up a few more bodies to make a bigger impact in DC. I don’t think it’ll be a big deal to the districts,” said Jon Trainum, former chief of protective operations within the Marshals Service’s judicial security division.

The Marshals Service spokesperson wouldn’t provide specifics on where the deployed agents were pulled from geographically or within the agency, which handles judicial security and fugitive operations.

‘Saturation’

Marshals Director Gadyaces Serralta, who was confirmed two weeks ago with bipartisan support, “is going to be supervising command and control” of “the entire operation” in DC, Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this week.

Serralta said on Fox News on Aug. 14 that traffic stops are a “component of our saturation,” as well as narcotics and guns. Press photos from earlier in the week showed agents in Marshals Service gear participating in a traffic stop in Washington on a man allegedly driving with expired tags and without a license.

Officers wearing Marshals Service body armor and shields were also shown arresting Sean Charles Dunn, who has been charged with assault for throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent, in a video shared by the White House on social media on Thursday. A federal magistrate judge released Dunn after he appeared in court, according to news reports.

March said that while the nature of the criminal charge against Dunn is “unusual,” it’s “not outside of the scope of their authority” for marshals to have apprehended Dunn following federal charges.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Senate panel that oversees Justice Department funding, accused Trump of “wasting” federal law enforcement resources on a “political stunt.”

Trump “is diverting critical national crime-fighting resources, like the U.S. Marshals service, away from tracking down some of the most wanted federal fugitives to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C.,” he said through a spokesperson.

The Justice Department has asked for an 8.3% increase in funds for the Marshals Service for next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The department pointed to the rising number of threats against federal judges in recent years and the increased “intensity of concerning and potentially threatening electronic communications” against them.

The deployment is part of President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the Washington local police and deployment of federal agents to the streets of the nation’s capital, under a provision in the 1973 Home Rule Act that allows the federal government to control the police in emergency circumstances for up to 30 days.

Washington’s attorney general challenged the administration’s use of the emergency authorities in a Friday lawsuit that claims the action risks public safety and “havoc” within the police department.