Jay Strubberg
Judge handling Trump case threatened: 'We want to kill you'
A Texas woman is accused of leaving a voicemail telling federal judge Tanya Chutkan, "You are in our sights; we want to kill you."
LEARN MOREPosted: 1:00 p.m. EDT Aug 18, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is calling off a press conference scheduled for Monday that he planned to use to present evidence that he said proves he is innocent in his latest indictment of election interference in Georgia.
In a Truth Social post, the former president said his lawyers convinced him it would be better for the evidence to be presented in legal filings.
The move comes as the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Georgia announced it is investigating threats against members of the grand jury in the case after their personal information began circulating online.
Despite no concrete actions taken, some jurors have had their pictures, social media profiles, possible addresses and phone numbers shared across multiple sites.
The concerns don't stop at the jurors; witnesses involved in the case are also worried.
"These folks are going to be on screen every day. Everyone is going to know who they are. Their lives are going to be turned upside down. And so just to be able to seat a jury of people who would be even willing to put, you know, their lives on the line is going to be really, really difficult. So it's something that we all need to be thinking about. I know that the DHS office is, but it is, you know, serious," said former Georgia State Senator Jen Jordan.
It is standard policy to post the names of grand jurors in the state of Georgia, which makes it an outlier among federal and state court systems. The reason for this is to give criminal defendants a chance to challenge the composition of the grand jury. But Georgia officials don't want standard practice to lead to violence.
This is just the latest incident involving threats of political violence.
A Texas woman was charged after threatening to kill Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing the election interference case against former President Trump in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month, FBI agents killed an armed Utah man who was facing arrest after making violent threats against President Joe Biden and law enforcement involved in prosecuting Trump.
In a statement, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office said, "We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty."
