US Marshals director calls increase in threats to judges and prosecutors ‘a substantial risk to our democracy’

The head of the US Marshals Service is sounding the alarm on a dramatic increase in the number of threats aimed at federal judges and prosecutors, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that the development “constitutes a substantial risk to our democracy.”

“I’m deeply concerned with the alarming increase in threats against our judiciary and the violent nature of those threats. In the past three years, the number of threats against federal judges have more than doubled, as have threats against prosecutors and other court officials,” US Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis told a House Judiciary subcommittee.

“I must state in stark terms that the current and evolving threat environment facing the judiciary constitutes a substantial risk to our democracy,” Davis added.

The number of federal judges who received serious threats rose to 457 in the fiscal year 2023 that ended in September, up from 300 the year before and 224 in fiscal 2021.

Read more: CNN