DHS General Counsel James Percival torched the “liberal media” after a Chicago Sun-Times reporter questioned whether his social-media series exposing activist judges puts those judges at risk of threats.
Percival’s response: “absolute absurdity.”
The Trump administration official launched a series last week titled “Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition” β spotlighting judges who, in his view, sabotage immigration enforcement and endanger ICE officers.
The series prompted a Chicago Sun-Times reporter to ask DHS whether “a social media post like this risk[s] additional threats” against federal judges.
“Legitimate fact based critiques of judges and their rulings is fair game in a free society. The media has no issue with it if the judge is conservative.”
Percival pointed out the double standard: conservative Supreme Court justices have faced actual violence and death threats, yet media scrutiny focuses on criticism of liberal judges β not the real dangers facing conservatives on the bench.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the target of an assassination plot in 2022 when an armed California man traveled to his home with a pistol, ammunition, zip ties, pepper spray, duct tape and burglary tools. Justice Amy Coney Barrett testified in a recent congressional hearing that she has had to wear a bulletproof vest in response to threats.
Meanwhile, Percival’s series called out district judges in sanctuary jurisdictions β Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, California β for rulings he says endanger federal officers.
Judge Matthew Kennelly, a Clinton appointee in the Northern District of Illinois, ordered a nationwide pause on the termination of temporary protected status for migrants from Burma earlier this month.
Percival wrote that Kennelly issued the stay “even though these decisions are not subject to judicial review, even though we have been vindicated by the Supreme Court on TPS four times, and even though the Seventh Circuit summarily reversed him on the same issue only days before.”
“This is judicial sabotage,” Percival wrote.
Judge HernΓ‘n Vera, a Biden appointee in the Central District of California, recently “entered an order micromanaging DHS’s use of force policy with respect to violent anti-ICE agitators in Los Angeles.”
Percival noted that Vera described the agitators as “protesters” and “legal observers,” while framing DHS’s defense of personnel and property as “violent.”
“Agitators in Los Angeles have assaulted DHS employees, thrown objects at them, engaged in arson, and even tried to breech [sic] a federal facility. Judicial micromanagement of use of force in these contexts puts our officers at risk.”
Sean Lewis, a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, told Fox News Digital that “the Code of Conduct calls on federal judges not to comment publicly on pending cases.”
Lewis added that “when someone disagrees with a ruling, the appropriate way to challenge it is through the appellate process.”
The media has yet to explain why exposing judges who endanger federal officers is off-limits β while years of targeting conservative justices was routine.
