U.S. District Judge John McConnell received an unordered pizza delivery to his Rhode Island home addressed to a name that sent chills down his spine: Daniel Anderl.
The name belonged to federal Judge Esther Salas's son, who was shot and killed in 2020 by a disgruntled lawyer targeting his mother, and he told the Washington Post that he called his fellow jurist to warn her.
"I don't think anything disturbed me as much as that did," McConnell recalled.
The sinister delivery was one of many intimidation tactics targeting McConnell after he began issuing rulings against President Donald Trump and his administration. Similar deliveries were sent to federal judges in at least seven states, signaling an alarming new climate for the judiciary.
McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee and chief federal judge in Rhode Island, worked in relative obscurity for 15 years before his security situation drastically changed in early 2025. After he granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration's sweeping freeze on trillions in federal funding, the threats began.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer posted about McConnell on social media, accusing him of abusing judicial power. Elon Musk, then heading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, amplified the post to millions of followers — including a photo of McConnell's daughter, who worked as a political appointee in the Department of Education.
"I felt like someone put a dagger through my heart," McConnell said when his daughter became a target. Approximately 400 disturbing calls and emails flooded the federal courthouse. The U.S. Marshals Service identified at least six credible death threats, including one posted on the dark web where someone claimed Smith & Wesson wanted "to pay him a visit."
Security incidents of "significant concern" at federal courts jumped 57 percent in fiscal year 2025, with 564 threats to federal judges — up from 509 the previous year. The Marshals Service requested additional funding, warning that "the current and future threat environment [is] expected to intensify."
The threats intensified after each ruling against the administration. When McConnell ruled in June that the Trump administration's freeze on immigration-related applications for citizens of 39 countries violated federal law, a Republican member of Congress moved to impeach him — the second impeachment attempt.
An insurance company even cancelled McConnell's homeowner's policy, indicating the insured party was "too risky" and attaching a link to a GOP impeachment effort.
The president and his allies have consistently attacked judges personally. Trump called judges "monsters" and "lunatics," while DHS general counsel James Percival posted a list of federal judges labeled the "Worst of the Worst" — language the agency uses for alleged criminals.
DHS also lambasted Judge Melissa DuBose, McConnell's colleague, in a misleading news release that "put her in personal danger," McConnell later wrote.
Federal judges are speaking out about the danger. "We're just doing our job," McConnell said. "What's unusual is the dehumanization, the threats, the personalization of our doing our jobs."
Salas lamented that the current climate as fundamentally different from past partisan tensions, saying: "This is no longer apples to apples. This is apples to watermelons."
