Mark Alford Warns Of ‘Unprecedented Threats’ To Judges’ Personal Safety With Doxxing Of Private Info

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) warned of the safety threats posed to judges.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Congressman. Thank you very much. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from

00:04Missouri, Mr. Alford, for any questions he may ask. Well thank you very much. I appreciate that.

00:10Good to have our witnesses here. Appreciate your time for coming here.

00:16Justices today face unprecedented threats to their personal safety. In an era of social media,

00:24mobs who disagree with legal interpretation share personal identifiable information on social media.

00:30These online mobs encourage violence against judges and will dox their home addresses,

00:37familiar information, and anything else they can get their grubby little hands on.

00:43Judge Conrad, how does the Judiciary's Threat Management Branch help remove this information

00:49from the public domain and what can Congress do to ensure the safety of folks like you?

00:55So for a number of years we've been active in trying to get the Daniel Andrell bill.

01:03Is your mic on sir? Would you please start over? For a number of years we've been very active

01:10pursuant to the Daniel Andrell bill and other efforts at getting both in state courts and across the

01:18country that personal identification information offline. And we have encouraged judges to sign up for

01:28delete me type protections where, where the internet is scrubbed for personal identification information.

01:36And over 80% or near 80% of our judges are engaged in those kind of efforts.

01:45What do we need to do to get all of them involved in those efforts?

01:49What we do at every judicial conference across the country, we have a component that deals with

02:00judicial security and encourage best practices with respect to our judges.

02:06Just over a month ago, a California man pleaded guilty to attempted murder of Justice Brett Kavanaugh

02:11three years ago. He was arrested outside the justice's residence with a gun, a knife, zip ties in the

02:16wake of Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. While I understand the Supreme Court handles their own

02:20threats, has the rest of the judiciary moved to strengthening security after potentially large

02:26decisions like that could sway action by mentally deranged people?

02:36And we have active coordination with United States Marshals Service and try to surge resources

02:42to areas that we can anticipate problems. We have requested funding for courthouse hardening projects that

02:52will provide security to courthouses and we have encouraged judges to and supported them financially

03:01in obtaining home intrusion detection systems. And so we're pretty focused on the home and the courthouse.

03:10Sometimes the vulnerability is in between.

03:13How much money do you need from us to make sure that those programs get put in place that we protect our judiciary?

03:19Well, we are asking for our court security account, $892 million. That funds our court security officers, the

03:30vulnerability management program that Judge Conrad just mentioned. And it also funds updating security equipment in the courthouses.

03:37And it's really needed for that last piece because that account has been frozen for the last two years.

03:46So we've had to take money from that account that was intended to update our equipment, to put new cameras in, new security measures in.

03:54We've had to take that money and use it to pay for the court security officers and the vulnerability management program.

04:01It's called robbing Peter to pay Paul. What happens if we don't get this funded?

04:07That equipment will become more obsolete and increase security risks at courthouses around the country.

04:16Mr. Chair, I respectfully submit that we take a good close look at this.

04:21I know we will because this is a precious part of our government.

04:26We need to protect those who serve us through the judiciary. And with that, I yield back. Thank you, sir.

04:37Hi, my.

04:38Hi, I have a great question.

04:39I had a great question.

04:43I have a great question.

04:46I am sure you would.

04:49But there are a long time.

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