Georgia New York or Judge Scott McAfee, presiding in an election interference case against former US president Donald Trump, is among the targets. Fulton County prosecutors charged Trump with illegally pressuring officials to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election.

McAfee has received less attention from Trump than the New York judges. Trump has repeatedly denounced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case, but has refrained from criticising McAfee by name.

But after the judge denied his motion to dismiss Willis over her romantic relationship with a fellow prosecutor, Trump posted two Fox News videos from one of his spokespeople and a legal analyst assailing the decision. Trump backers quickly turned on McAfee.

“Judge McAfee should be hanged,” one commented in response to a Gateway Pundit post about the ruling.

After a subsequent decision again denying Trump’s request for a dismissal, more violent comments followed. “These people need gutting like we do fish,” one unidentified commenter wrote beneath another Gateway Pundit post about McAfee’s decision. McAfee and Willis did not respond to requests for comment.

Even when Trump himself does not single out judges for criticism, supporters often threaten and harass judges who rule against the former president’s interests.

In late February, an Illinois circuit court judge in Chicago, Tracie Porter, ruled that Trump should be unable to stand on the state’s primary ballot because of his role in the 2021 Capitol attack. Furious at the decision, Trump supporters targeted Porter with violent online messages and menacing calls to her office, said Illinois Supreme Court Marshal Jim Cimarossa.

As head of the state marshal program, Cimarossa oversees security for Illinois’ highest-ranking judges and maintains a statewide database on threats against the local judiciary and courts. The threats against Porter haven’t been previously reported.

In the days after Porter’s ruling, the Illinois Marshals program saw a rise in threats against other state judges, Cimarossa said, describing it as a “copycat bump.” Threats against the judiciary often climb when another judge is attacked in a high-profile case, he said. Porter’s ruling was later nullified by the US Supreme Court.

Trump didn’t mention Porter by name. But in a March 4 speech he criticised states that “didn’t want” him and “rogue judges.” A Cook County Circuit Court spokesperson said Porter could not comment due to aspects of the case that continue to be litigated. He said the judiciary and law enforcement “give high priority to protecting judges.”

“We have a lot, a lot of threats,” Cimarossa said, citing a nearly 18 per cent increase in threats to his state’s courts so far in 2024. “It’s escalating.”

At least 25 states have state-run court security programmes that provide services such as threat assessment and physical protection for high-ranking judges. But most state and local judges across the country rely on sheriffs or police to respond to requests for protection, Cimarossa said.

In a survey of nearly 400 mostly state judges by the National Judicial College, an education group, nearly eight out of 10 agreed that it is becoming more dangerous to be a judge. The survey, completed in 2022 and made available to Reuters in advance of publication later this year, also found that more than 70 per cent of respondents had received harassing or menacing communications.

New Mexico Judge Francis Mathew told Reuters he received dozens of threatening messages after ruling that Couy Griffin, an Otero County commissioner who founded Cowboys for Trump, a political advocacy group, was ineligible to hold public office because he participated in the 2021 Capitol riot.

“Trump’s behaviour is teaching people that they can do these things.”

On the day of his ruling in September 2022, Mathew received one email calling for his execution and another that included his home address, according to communications shared with Reuters. Griffin said in an interview that he and his family also have received threats and that he never called for violence against Mathew. “As far as threats and stuff goes, that’s something that’s out of my control,” he said.

Although Trump has not criticised him on social media, Mathew blames Trump for “orchestrating” the deluge of threats targeting judges. “Trump’s behaviour is teaching people that they can do these things,” Mathew said in an interview. Cheung, Trump’s spokesperson, did not respond to that claim.

“A face only a fist could love”

Much of the violent rhetoric documented by Reuters illustrates a phenomenon identified by social scientists: Online communities catering to specific political views can create an echo chamber, where participants spur each other to increasingly extreme posts.

In pro-Trump forums, when someone “pushes the norm of what is considered acceptable speech” by posting a call to execute judges or other public officials, “and no one questions it, then the norm of what is acceptable may shift,” said Cathy Buerger, who studies inflammatory rhetoric at the nonpartisan Dangerous Speech Project in Washington. Buerger reviewed the violent posts identified by Reuters.

On pro-Trump sites, one violent comment often leads to escalating calls to kill or harm Trump’s perceived enemies. That pattern emerged in a series of Gateway Pundit comments posted April 2. In response to an article criticizing “far-left judge Juan Merchan,” one reader referred to a photo of the jurist by saying, “A face only a fist could love.”

“Or a steel toed boot,” another reader replied.

“Or an aluminium bat,” a third wrote.

Another poster upped the ante: “Colt Combat Commander 45” – a popular semi-automatic handgun.

• A Reuters report