'This is on purpose': Legal experts sickened by Trump's incitement of 'vile' threats

On Wednesday, a top New York court security official revealed that New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron and clerk Alison Greenfield had received numerous credible threats on their lives after former President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked them on his Truth Social platform.

Some legal experts reacted in horror to the threats against Engoron and Greenfield, which were often laced with anti-Semitic invective.

Former Obama Associate White House Counsel Ian Bassin, for one, said that Trump had to be aware that such threats would occur whenever he lobbed attacks on officials and he said it was part of a concerted strategy by the former president.

"This is on purpose," he wrote on Twitter. "This is Trump’s intent. He wants these people to feel threatened and intimidated. He’s taking a page right from the mafia, plain and simple. And the courts have a duty to stop it."

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman, meanwhile, argued that such threats would likely strengthen the case for slapping Trump with a gag order restricting his ability to talk about the legal cases he's facing.

"There is a dynamic here, where judges in an individual case have to be aware of Trump’s incendiary and dangerous rhetoric nationwide and the genuine risk that someone somewhere will get grievously hurt," he wrote on Twitter.

And CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen similarly argued that these threats more than justify reinstating Trump's gag order.

"The threats that Trump is triggering against the New York judge & his law clerk are violent & anti-Semitic," he wrote on Twitter. "They shot up after the gag order was temporarily lifted on appeal 1st amend. protections are not absolute and the gag order should and eventually will be reinstated."