The CIA has been helping out in an investigation into a bizarre intimidation tactic used against federal judges in which someone has been ordering pizzas sent to their homes, the head of the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Gadyaces S. Serralta, who became the marshals’ director last summer, told The Washington Times’ “The Sitdown With Alex Swoyer” podcast that they have an expansive “open investigation” that’s included “many other three-letter agencies.”
“We’ve gotten assistance from the FBI, CIA, you name the agency; this has been put on their radar,” Mr. Serralta said.
“We’ve been able to expand our investigative leads tremendously, and we’re very satisfied with the progress,” he said.
The pizza tactic has drawn attention in recent days as some federal judges went public with complaints about a rise in threats.
The way pizza doxxing works, hoax deliveries lure public officials to their home’s front door for a possible attack.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, whose 20-year-old son was killed and her husband wounded in 2020 in an attack at her home by a disgruntled lawyer, said she wants to see more of a focus from the Trump administration on toning down anti-judge rhetoric.
In remarks at a legal conference hosted by Law.com, she said vitriol has served as a “dog whistle” to direct anger at judges.
“When you don’t see the attorney general of the United States, when you don’t see the deputy attorney general of the United States, stand at a podium and say, ’We are investigating these pizza doxxings, and when we find who is doing this, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law’ … to me, that silence says a lot,” Judge Salas said, according to Law.com.
Mr. Serralta, in the interview, said threats have been “on the rise for the last four or five years.”
“We have more avenues to say stupid things, and that is what folks do,” he said. “They think that they can hide behind a handle or a TikTok name or however they want to disguise their actual name, but know this, the United States Marshal Service is going to come after you if you make a threat to one of our judges, and we will not stop until we put you in prison.”
He said there are veiled threats and then the more explicit ones, where someone details a “method and the means” to carry it out.
“The advice I have is: Be mad, but don’t send any threats,” he said.
One of the most prominent cases came in 2022, when Nicholas Roske, angry over an impending decision on abortion rights, traveled from California to Maryland and showed up at 1 a.m. one day at the home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh with a pistol, ammunition, a knife, lock picks, duct tape and pepper spray.
Roske, who now goes by Sophie, was sentenced to about eight years in prison, with the judge saying Roske had turned away from the plot at the last moment, called police to report on the plan, and didn’t actually pose a threat anymore.
“It certainly, to me is a light sentence,” Mr. Serralta said. “I would have liked to see more, but having been a cop for 35 years, that is probably where I would be on most prosecutions.”
The Marshals Service has been enlisted as part of President Trump’s surge of federal forces to combat crime in Washington and Memphis, Tennessee.
Mr. Serralta said the success has been undeniable, with a 60% drop in homicides and a 70% drop in carjackings in Washington.
He said the turnaround is due to basic police work.
“I can guarantee you when a jurisdiction is soft on crime and when a police department is handcuffed — for lack of a better word — if they are held back, usually, the violence spikes,” he said.
He also said the deployment of the National Guard was crucial to the success. The troops provided enhanced patrolling, which frees up officers to swoop in and make arrests.
“It’s been very effective to have them around,” he said.
Mr. Serralta also praised his fellow federal law enforcement colleagues at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whom he said are professionals trying to enforce the laws.
“They’re not doing anything wrong; they’re doing their job,” he said. “Perhaps their messaging has fallen short.
“Politicians, the media, the guy on the street — the activist — they are pushing their agenda and their narrative, and we are not very quick to rebut their assessment, and that I think hurts us in the end.”
He said his agency and ICE have teamed up in places such as Florida to go after fugitives who are also illegal immigrants.
“You are talking brutal, violent individuals, so just as we help the immigration detail, they help us. So, as they are hitting these houses, they are finding fugitives for us. So yes, one hand is washing the other,” he said.
