Judge in Trump election case gets extra protection after ex-president posts about her

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The US District Court judge assigned to supervise the election subversion case against former president Donald Trump has reportedly been assigned extra security by the US Marshals Service since the ex-president’s arraignment last week.

CNN reported on Tuesday that deputy US Marshals have discussed plans for stepped-up protective operations relating to Judge Tanya Chutkan, the nine-year veteran of the federal bench to whom the four-count indictment against the ex-president was randomly assigned after the charging document was filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The network also reported that journalists had observed a larger security detail for the judge, a veteran of the DC defence bar who was named to the bench in 2014 by then-president Barack Obama.

Security for federal judges and courthouses is handled by the Marshals Service, which is the nation’s oldest law enforcement agency. The service has been part of the Department of Justice since 1969, but from 1789 until it was absorbed into the DOJ it was the law enforcement arm of the federal courts and still maintains its role in protecting the court system.

A spokesperson for the Marshals Service, Drew Wade, told CNN that the Marshals take their responsibility to protect the DC District Court and its’ judges “very seriously”.

“Ensuring that judges can rule independently and free from harm or intimidation is paramount to the rule of law, and a fundamental mission of the USMS,” he said. “While we do not discuss our specific security measures, we continuously review the measures in place and take appropriate steps to ensure the integrity of the federal judicial process”.

The heightened security for Judge Chutkan comes after Mr Trump began posting about the judge on his Truth Social platform.

The ex-president and his attorneys have both suggested the judge is biased against him and have also called for her recusal, but no formal request for recusal has been filed with the court.

Mr Trump has a history of using friendly news outlets or his own social media to signal real or perceived enemies who have been subsequently inundated with abuse and threats by his supporters.

After the names of FBI agents involved in the 8 August 2022 search of his Palm Beach, Florida property were leaked to Breitbart News, prosecutors said in court papers that those agents were targeted with death threats by the ex-president’s fans.