Bruce Reinhart, Florida judge who approved FBI raid on Trump home, faces storm of death threats
- US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on FBI search warrant of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate
- Reinhart has faced vitriol from Trump supporters, and judge’s home address was posted on right-wing sites
Hundreds of US federal judges face the same task every day: review an affidavit submitted by federal agents and approve requests for a search warrant.
But for US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the fallout from his decision to approve a search warrant has been far from routine.
He has faced a storm of death threats since his signature earlier this month cleared the way for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a probe into whether he inappropriately removed sensitive materials from the White House.
Reinhart’s home address was posted on right-wing sites, along with antisemitic slurs. The South Florida synagogue he attends cancelled its Friday night Shabbat services in the wake of the uproar.
Trump has done little to lower the temperature among his supporters, decrying the search as political persecution and calling on Reinhart to recuse himself in the case because he has previously made political donations to Democrats. Reinhart has also, however, contributed to Republicans.
The threats against Reinhart are part of a broader attack on law enforcement, particularly the FBI, by Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the search.
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But experts warn that the focus on a judge, coming amid an uptick in threats to the judiciary in general, is dangerous for the rule of law in the US and the country’s viability as a democracy.
“Threats against judges fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities strike at the very core of our democracy,” US Second Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Security, said in a statement issued recently in the aftermath of the search. “Judges should not have to fear retaliation for doing their jobs.”
Reinhart was to preside over a hearing on Thursday on a request by media organisations, seeking to unseal the underlying affidavit the Justice Department submitted when it asked for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
Asked to comment about measures it has taken to protect Reinhart and his family the US Marshals Service said in a statement: “while we do not discuss our specific security measures, we continuously review the measures in place and take appropriate steps to provide protection as necessary to ensure the integrity of the federal judicial process”.
The vitriol directed at the magistrate, while striking, is becoming increasingly common. In 2014, the US Marshals Service handled 768 incidents that it classified as “inappropriate communications” aimed at judges and court employees. Last year, it reported more than 4,500.
At one point “virtually everyone recognised how inappropriate it was to threaten the life or security of a judge because of a disagreement with the judge’s decision,” said Barbara Lynn, chief judge for the northern district of Texas. “Now I think there are a lot of people that don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
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FBI raids former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
His father was wounded. The bill, which has the support of groups ranging from the American Bar Association to the National Association of Attorneys General, would keep more of judges’ personal information private.
In June, a retired Wisconsin county circuit judge, John Roemer was killed in his home in what authorities said was a targeted killing by a gunman, who fatally wounded himself as well.
Later that month, protesters converged on the homes of conservative US Supreme Court justices after they overturned a 49-year-old ruling that women have a constitutional right to obtain an abortion.
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Police arrested a man with knives, zip ties and a gun near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and he said he planned to kill the conservative justice. Congress rapidly approved money to bolster security at the justices’ homes and provide 24-hour protection to their families.
Trump’s initial presidential campaign – during which he personally condemned a judge who ruled against him in a lawsuit over his now-defunct Trump University – changed the ground rules governing threats and explosive rhetoric, said Matthew Weil, executive director of the Democracy Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
“There are threats everywhere now, it’s become more normalised because he changed what was allowed in public discourse,” Weil said, who said both the right and the left have turned to threatening the judicial branch.
The most recent warning sign came after last week’s search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort and political and personal headquarters.
FBI agents seized 11 sets of classified information as part of an investigation of three different federal laws, including one that governs gathering, transmitting or losing defence information under the Espionage Act, according to court records.
Trump accused the government of abuse of power in targeting him, and his supporters railed against the search online, targeting the FBI and Department of Justice. An armed man who posted threats against the FBI on Trump’s Truth Social network was killed by authorities after trying to storm the agency’s Cincinnati office.
On Monday, Trump warned that there needed to be less anger over the Mar-a-Lago raid, or else “terrible things” would happen.
