The FBI said Friday that it is working to address threats against Colorado Supreme Court justices after the court deemed former President Donald Trump ineligible for the state’s Republican primary ballot.
“The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” Vikki Migoya, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Denver field office, said in a statement. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”
The Colorado State Patrol, which provides protection for the justices in the courthouse and other state buildings, acknowledged the FBI’s efforts, saying in a statement that it “will assist with those investigations as necessary,” but declined to comment on any additional security measures prompted by the threats.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Judicial Department declined to comment on court security matters.
ABC News first reported on the FBI’s efforts.
In a historic 4-3 ruling Tuesday, Colorado’s high court, composed entirely of Democratic-appointed judges, found it “would be a wrongful act” under the state’s election code to include Trump as a candidate on the state’s March 5 primary ballot, saying he was disqualified from holding the office under Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
A nonprofit investigative research organization issued a report this week that found a wave of online threats against the justices who ruled in the case.
Advance Democracy identified “significant violent rhetoric” directed against the justices, often in response to the former president’s Truth Social posts on the subject. Some social media users also shared the justices’ contact information and office building addresses, according to the report.
Trump has criticized legal challenges in Colorado and other states like New Hampshire, Arizona and Michigan aimed at keeping him off those states’ primary ballots as “nonsense” and “election interference.”
