Federal judge overseeing election case against Trump was victim of swatting incident
(CNN) — The federal judge overseeing the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, was the victim of a swatting call on her home late Sunday night, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Posted — UpdatedThe source told CNN that a male caller said he had shot his girlfriend and would kill himself. The address the caller provided on the call was federal Judge Tanya Chutkan’s. Swatting incidents are dangerous prank calls that are made to authorities to lure them to a location under the false pretense that a crime has been committed or is in progress.
According to the DC Metropolitan Police Department, officers responded to a reported shooting on Sunday night, but when they arrived to the location, they determined there was none.
CNN reported in August that security for Chutkan was increased in the days after Trump’s indictment in the election subversion case in DC and the judge was assigned the case.
The federal election interference case is a result of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into alleged efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four counts. Chutkan scheduled the trial to begin on March 4, the day before voters in more than a dozen states will cast their primary ballots.
Chutkan has faced threats before, including from a Texas woman arrested last summer and charged with threatening in a voicemail to kill the judge if Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024.
Sunday’s incident marks the latest swatting call on a government official. Late last month, police responded to a swatting call at the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a day after she removed Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot. Also last month, Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott’s Naples home was swatted, and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home in Rome, Georgia, was swatted on Christmas Day, officials said.
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