Prioritize protecting federal judges amid a documented surge in threats.
He called judicial protection the Marshals Service’s "solemn mandate" at his confirmation hearing, pledging to properly resource protective details as threats rose. The agency’s own data shows why: 564 threats to federal judges in fiscal 2025, with 370 more logged by July 2026, and 299 individual judges named as threat targets that year. Concrete follow-through includes an open multi-agency investigation (with CIA and FBI assistance, by his own account) into a judge-intimidation scheme, and a $34 million budget request for 78 additional judicial-security positions. The tension: congressional Democrats and outside reporting note the same agency has simultaneously deployed marshals to immigration enforcement and local "crime surge" task forces, which judges and Bloomberg Law reporting say has strained the staffing available for the judicial-protection mission he calls his top priority.
- Official's own officeU.S. Marshals Service (2026 Judicial Security Fact Sheet)
- News reportWashington Times
- News reportCBS News