The final day of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York was marked by an alarming event when Justice Arthur Engoron woke up to a bomb threat at his residence. The Daily Beast first reported the incident which saw the Nassau County Police Department and a bomb squad arrive at the judge’s home shortly after the former president criticized Engoron on social media, labeling him a “Trump hating judge”.
Threats and harassment directed at individuals targeted by Trump’s social media outbursts are becoming a disturbingly common pattern. Justice Engoron is not the first judge to suffer such a threat, with US District Judge Tanya Chutkan experiencing a fake report of a shooting at her residence earlier this year. This occurred in the midst of her presiding over Trump’s election interference case. Additionally, Special Counsel Jack Smith was subject to an attempted “swatting” on Christmas day and Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was targeted with a fake emergency call after she removed Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot.
Most concerning is that threats are not restricted to public figures. In the wake of Trump and his lawyers attempting to undermine the trial, Justice Engoron’s law clerk became the victim of a vicious campaign of harassment.
The escalation of these events follows a weeklong disagreement regarding Trump’s demand to deliver his own closing argument. Chris Kise, one of Trump’s lawyers, used a range of tactics to try to see this come to fruition – even going as far as to try to postpone proceedings citing the death of Trump’s mother-in-law.
Despite these efforts, Trump has yet to express any concern for the victims of these threats, indicating a worrying lack of empathy. In fact, Trump has yet to call on his supporters to cease their threatening behaviour towards the judge, the law clerk, or indeed any of his perceived adversaries.