FBI investigating threats to Colorado judges as Trump pours “gasoline on the fire”

The FBI and law enforcement are investigating reported violent threats made against the Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of removing former President Donald Trump from the 2024 primary ballot for violating the 14th Amendment. “The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” FBI Public Affairs Officer Vikki Migoya said in a statement to CNN on Monday. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”

Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits individuals who have “engaged” in an insurrection from pursuing public office, per The Messenger. The names of the four concurring Democratic justices have appeared in a number of “incendiary” posts online, a nonpartisan research organization discovered and shared with CNN in a report. “There remains a risk of lone actor or small group violence or other illegal activities in response to the ruling” though there haven’t been specific threats to the justices, the analysis found according to CNN. One post cited in the analysis, according to CNN, reads, “All f— robed rats must f— hang,” in a supposed reference to the justices. Master Trooper Gary Cutler, a Colorado State Patrol spokesman, told CNN that any threats against judges would be handled by local law enforcement. 

“You have Donald Trump, a former President of the United States, making vivid vitriolic personal attacks on prosecutors, on judges, calling them names, that adds gasoline to the fire into these chatrooms and people feel they are being called on,” CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller said Monday. “The problem is, for authorities, is sorting out the noise from who the real player is going to be, who might show up and do something. You look at the Nancy Pelosi case where an individual showed up at her home in San Francisco, home invasion, assaulted her husband. Someone who was not on the radar screen and comes out of the woodwork. So these are difficult cases.”