Judges Who Ruled Against Trump Are Receiving Unsolicited Pizza Deliveries

Federal judges across several states are being delivered unsolicited pizza orders — an act of harassment and attempted intimidation, they say, from people who are unhappy with their rulings involving President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Marshals Service has been tracking such deliveries since February. Although the agency hasn’t divulged details on how prevalent they are, The Washington Post reports that the deliveries may number “in the hundreds,” and have occurred in at least seven states.

The deliveries aren’t just happening at judges’ homes, but also at the homes of their family members, some judges revealed in interviews with the publication.

“It’s unsettling because I’d like to go to work every day, even with the hardest case, just feeling like there’s no sense of intimidation,” said U.S. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Washington-based judge who received pizza deliveries shortly after taking part in a ruling against Trump over his administration’s firing of a government watchdog.

Childs added:

It’s really an unnecessary and an unfortunate threat to our security when we’re trying to be judicial officers in a very neutral position with respect to our cases. You need a strong judiciary for the system to work. This is infringing on democracy generally.

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, whose son Daniel was killed in 2020 by a person posing as a delivery driver, said the pizza deliveries — some under her son’s name — were a clear attempt at intimidation.

“We know what that all means, right?” Salas said. “We know the first is, ‘I know where you live.’ Second is, ‘We know where your children live.’ And the third now is, ‘Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? Do you want to end up like Daniel?'”

A spokesperson for the White House suggested that Trump is against the intimidation tactics, saying that attacks on judges “have no place in our society.” But despite that assertion, Trump has made a series of online posts and public statements condemning judges who have ruled against him — and attacking judges’ credibility, character and loyalty to the country.

Over the weekend, for example, Trump decried a supposed “radicalized and incompetent Court System” and criticized judicial orders relating to his draconian immigration policies, writing on Sunday that the rulings would make the U.S. a “CRIME RIDDEN THIRD WORLD NATION, NEVER TO SEE GREATNESS AGAIN.” (Notably, data shows that migrants living in the U.S. are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens.)

On Monday, Trump continued his attacks on the judiciary, claiming that “Radical Left Judges” didn’t care about protecting the country from supposed “murderers and other criminals.”

Trump has also demanded the impeachment of judges who have issued rulings against him. And his attacks extend beyond the rhetorical, as the FBI recently arrested a judge in Wisconsin, alleging that she blocked immigration agents from detaining someone outside of her courtroom earlier this year.

Critics called that action a blatant intimidation tactic against judges in general.

“Milwaukee’s Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE by not turning her courtroom into a trap. This isn’t justice. It’s a warning shot: obey, or get cuffed,” opined podcaster Brian Allen.

“We do not have kings in this country. … By attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders and arresting a sitting judge,” Trump is “putting basic democratic values…on the line,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin).