Judge Esther Salas says her son can not have died in vain. (Photo: COURTESY MERCURY)
The U.S. Marshals Service lacks staffing and threat detection capabilities to adequately protect the federal judiciary as threats against jurists have escalated, an internal Justice Department report concluded Wednesday.
Among a number of alarming findings outlined in the 32-page report, Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the agency was operating at a 24% staffing shortage, needing at least 1,200 additional deputy marshals to meet its obligations.
“Resource limitations and competing agency budget and staffing priorities have impeded the USMS’s ability to provide the level of protective services that it has determined is required given the increasing number of threats directed at the judiciary,” the report concluded. “Further, the USMS does not have adequate proactive threat detection capabilities to monitor the current threat landscape, including in online and social media settings.”
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz returns from a break to continue testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019, on the Inspector General's report on alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)
In addition, updated home security equipment is not being offered to judges, and other judges are not participating in the USMS’s home security program.
The USMS has a far-reaching security responsibility for protecting more than 2,700 sitting judges, the deputy attorney general and about 30,000 federal prosecutors and court officials across the country.
Related: Federal courts look to expand security following Capitol riot, other threats to judges
A year ago, a judge’s family was targeted
The report comes nearly a year after a shooting at the New Jersey home of a federal judge left her son dead and husband wounded.
Judge Esther Salas later decried the vulnerability of the judiciary, saying her colleagues on the bench should not have to “live in fear for our lives.”
Related: Report: Federal judge says assailant who attacked her family had dossier on Justice Sonia Sotomayor
A self-proclaimed anti-feminist attorney, Roy Den Hollander, 72, posed as a delivery person before opening fire at the judge’s home. Hollander later fatally shot himself.
“My family has experienced a pain that no one should ever have to endure,” Salas said shortly after the attack. “And I am here asking everyone to help me ensure that no one ever has to experience this kind of pain… “We may not be able to stop something like this from happening again, but we can make it hard for those who target us to track us down.”
The severe security weaknesses outlined in the inspector general’s report are “particularly concerning” in light of an 89% increase in reported security-related incidents involving “inappropriate communications and threats” made to those the agency protects between 2016 and 2019.
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