Threats have been made against the judges who banned Donald Trump from standing for president in Colorado next year.
“Significant violent rhetoric” against the justices and Democrats was uncovered on social media in the 24 hours after Tuesday’s decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.
NBC News, Sky News’ US partner, reported on the findings by non-partisan US research firm Advance Democracy.
Among the posts, users published justices’ email addresses, phone numbers and office building addresses, often in direct response to the ex-president’s posts about the ruling on his Truth Social platform.
“This ends when we kill these f******,” a user wrote on a pro-Trump forum used by several 6 January rioters.
“What do you call seven justices from the Colorado Supreme Court at the bottom of the ocean?” asked another.
“A good start.”
Posts noted a variety of methods that could be used to kill those perceived as the Republican presidential candidate’s enemies: hollow-point bullets, rifles, rope, bombs.
“Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete,” read a post on a fringe website.
“Slam dunk a judge’s baby into the trashcan.”
It is not unusual for Mr Trump supporters to react to his legal and political setbacks with violent rhetoric.
After the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida last year in an investigation into missing classified documents, a man who had been part of the mob that invaded the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 attacked one of the agency’s field offices with a nail gun while holding an AR-15-style rifle.
And when a grand jury in Georgia charged the property tycoon over election interference, some of his supporters posted the grand jurors’ addresses online.
Advance Democracy president Daniel Jones blamed Mr Trump’s statements seeking to “deligitimise and politicise the actions of the courts” as a “key driver of the violent rhetoric”.
Mr Trump is the overwhelming favourite to be the Republican nominee for next year’s presidential election against Joe Biden.
The Colorado Supreme Court and the Trump campaign were approached for comment, NBC said.
Source: Sky News
