Like in India, the political situation is heating up faster than the weather. Legal issues are frustrating politicians. Election officials say they and their families are threatened with kidnapping, rape, hanging and death if Donald Trump loses again
By Kenneth Tiven
Even as death threats against election and judicial officials are escalating, former US President Donald Trump’s legal costs are averaging $90,000 a day, according to a New York Times investigation of federal records Trump’s angry rhetoric at rallies and on social media encourages the attacks on election officials and government lawyers. Since leaving office in January 2021, Trump’s legal costs have totalled $100 million, meaning there is less to spend on campaign issues. Apparently, none of it was paid with his own money. Instead, the former president relied almost entirely on donations received in an attempt to fight the results immediately after the election. That money’s use was unregulated coming before he declared himself a 2024 candidate, subject to federal campaign rules. The New York Times makes clear his problem: “Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them.
The secretary of state in each state of the US is nominally the senior manager of elections, including the national polls conducted in that state. This contrasts with India, where the Election Commission of India manages national and state elections and has a respected reputation. This year’s election starts on April 19, takes 44 days, and has final results coming on June 1.American impatience is reflected in having most results available the same evening, even if the West Coast official totals are unavailable.
US election officials say they and their families are threatened with kidnapping, rape, hanging and death if Trump loses again because of a “Big Steal,” as the Republican campaign likes to describe it. Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, revealed that there was a 600% increase in threats to her and her staff after she had ruled that Trump was ineligible to be on the Colorado ballot for leading an insurrection. The appeals court did not rule on Trump’s complicity, but said individual state decisions about a national election could not occur because it would lead to chaos.
As the threats escalated in volume, they increased in violent threats. “We are coming for you bitch.” An email said: “If you have kids, I hope they get murdered by illegal aliens,” adding, “seriously, just die.” In a voice mail, someone said: “I can’t wait to find you and follow you to your house and expose your address.” Another voice mail said: “I’d love for you to die,” while another, using social media, warned her: “Take my advice and wear Kevlar … a lot of Kevlar!!!”
Griswold told MSNBC Host Chris Hayes that the federal Department of Justice’s Election Threat Response Task Force had managed just 20 convictions in three years. Hayes pointed out that unless someone counts and reports all the threats, we neither know how huge the problem is or how terrible the response is.
In frustration, Griswold says she went to the journalists, which law enforcement tells people not to do. The fact remains that Trump uses derogatory and dangerous language against people he does not like, regardless of being warned. His supporters believe this legitimizes what they do.
In every trial so far, Trump has been cautioned about his verbal outbursts. He has posted the reduced $175 million bond to appeal his business fraud conviction, getting a bond company to put up the money. If not overturned, the penalty remains nearly $500 million in the civil trial for business fraud. In the state criminal court that judge has expanded a gag order as Trump has made false allegations about the judge and his daughter. “This pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote. “It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game’ for ‘Defendant’s vitriol’.”
In a previous trial, Trump attacked the judicial team. A New York Times reporter described the venomous nature reaction to reading 275 single-spaced voice mail threats that Judge Engoron’s assistant had received after her phone number was made public. Law enforcement agencies knew about the threats to Judge Engoron’s clerk during Trump’s trial, but they don’t talk about “ongoing investigations”. It was New York state court system’s own Department of Public Safety that kept count of the threats and told the media.
In September 2021, the Reuters did a comprehensive report on threats against election workers not generating enough concern. The story recognized this reality:
1) It’s not a priority.
2) They don’t have a budget.
3) They don’t see it as a big deal, it’s “online” or on social media, so it’s not local or “real world”.
4) It’s a lot of work for a low conviction rate, especially if they have to prove intent.
5) The people getting threatened are not important (POC, low-level election workers, women like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss).
6) The people who are doing the threatening are not seen as domestic terrorists.
7) Lots of cops are Trumpers.
The idea was stressed that law enforcement and social media organizations need to do more than talk about the problem, while media organizations need to stop describing hate speech as misguided.
John Keller, head of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, put it succinctly: “Death threats are not debate. Death threats do not contribute to the marketplace of ideas. Death threats are not a protected constitutional right.”
In his social message on the Easter holiday, Trump said: “Crooked and corrupt prosecutors and judges are doing everything to interfere with the presidential election of 2024 and put me in prison.” In states where Democrats control the state government, threats are sent to judicial officers and officials, suggesting their deaths are justified. Republican politicians, fearful of losing Trump supporters, are reluctant to criticize such warnings ahead of national elections in November.
It promises to be a messy battle, legally and politically.
—The writer has worked in senior positions at The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CNN and also consults for several Indian channels