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A high-ranking Trump Department of Homeland Security official called out the “liberal media” for what he referred to as the “absolute absurdity” of its response to his series criticizing activist judges.
James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, posted a series on X last week titled “Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition.” In his posts, Percival pointed to the risks that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents face while enforcing the law, saying some judges are working to “sabotage” those operations and put officers “at risk.”
After his posts, Percival said DHS was contacted by a Chicago Sun-Times reporter about whether “a social media post like this risk[s] additional threats” in the context of “ongoing threats to federal judges.”
In response, Percival blasted the outlet in an X post in which he told followers, “Witness the absolute absurdity of the liberal media response to my new series, Worst of the Worst, District Judges.”
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Percival emphasized that “legitimate fact based critiques of judges and their rulings is fair game in a free society.” He also noted that “the media has no issue with it if the judge is conservative.”
Notably, conservative judges, including Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, have been the target of intense criticism from the left and, in some cases, violence. In 2022, Kavanaugh was the target of an assassination plot after an armed California man traveled to his home with a pistol, ammunition, zip ties, pepper spray, duct tape and burglary tools. Further, Barrett testified in a recent congressional hearing that she has had to wear a bulletproof vest in response to threats.
In his Worst of the Worst activist judges series, Percival called out district judges in the sanctuary jurisdictions of Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and California.
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Percival said that earlier this month, Northern District of Illinois Judge Matthew Kennelly, a Clinton appointee, ordered a nationwide pause on the termination of temporary protected status for migrants from Burma. Percival wrote that Kennelly ordered 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,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Percival wrote that Central District of California Judge Hernan Vera, a Biden appointee, recently “entered an order micromanaging DHS’s use of force policy with respect to violent anti-ICE agitators in Los Angeles.”
Percival noted that the judge “described the agitators as ‘protesters’ and ‘legal observers,’ while describing DHS’s actions defending its personnel and property as ‘violent.’”
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Percival noted, “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.”
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In response, 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. It also requires them to decide each matter independently, based on the law and the facts—not political pressure, public reaction, partisan interests, or fear of criticism.”
Lewis added that “when someone disagrees with a ruling, the appropriate way to challenge it is through the appellate process.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Chicago Sun-Times and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for comment.
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