In a letter, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for a staff-level briefing on measures being taken to enhance security around the nine justices.
The lawmakers are now demanding a briefing from the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the U.S. Marshals division that provides security to the Supreme Court justices. The briefing, they say, should “occur as soon as possible, but no later than August 6, 2024.”
The justices are not protected by the U.S. Secret Service, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security that is tasked with protecting current and former presidents, as well as vice presidents and members of their families.
Neither the DOJ nor the Supreme Court responded to requests for comment or have released public statements after the letter was sent.
The letter made mention of the June 2022 incident in which a man showed up at the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh with weapons and allegedly sought to kill him over a leaked draft opinion that was set to be published by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Prosecutors said that Nicholas Roske went to Justice Kavanaugh’s home with a pistol, ammunition, a knife, and other gear and sought to kill him. Mr. Roske has pleaded not guilty.
A Homeland Security Department report in 2022 said leak of the draft opinion in May unleashed a wave of threats against officials and others and increased the likelihood of violence. The leaked opinion also sparked left-wing protests outside the homes of Justice Kavanaugh and other justices.
In June 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bill to give around-the-clock security protection to the families of Supreme Court justices.
Aside from the Kavanaugh incident, the House Republicans in their letter Tuesday also made reference to a Democrat House lawmaker who introduced articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The GOP lawmakers said that lawmaker made “inaccurate or intentionally misleading statements to assert that the court has no legitimacy.”
“All of these tactics are meant to intimidate conservative justices for their official actions,” they wrote.
On July 13, former President Trump was shot in the ear, one rally attendee was killed, and two others were wounded. The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by law enforcement soon after opening fire, as the suspect.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, questions emerged about how the Secret Service handled security and whether it denied Trump campaign requests for more security at events.
Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday in the face of bipartisan demands to leave her post over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.
The same Judiciary panel heard testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday. He testified that the FBI has created a timeline of Mr. Crooks’ online activity and movements before the shooting, adding that his motive is still unclear.
“A lot of the usual repositories of information have not yielded, anything notable in terms of motive or ideology,” Mr. Wray said. He did note that Crooks had grown interested in public officials and had photos on his phone of prominent politicians. In the days before the shooting, he had appeared particularly consumed by Trump, the Republicans’ White House nominee, he said.
