Florida judge who approved FBI search of Mar-a-Lago faces barrage of antisemitic online attacks
The magistrate, who is Jewish, is facing attacks that are antisemitic in nature.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida federal magistrate judge who approved the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach County residence has faced an onslaught of antisemitic attacks and threats online, some of which targeted the synagogue he belongs to.
Magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart, a board member at Temple Beth David in Palm Beach Gardens, has seen sustained antisemitic attacks on right wing message boards and other social media platforms like 4Chan since his name surfaced as the judge who signed off on the FBI’s warrant to search Mar-a-Lago.
Republicans, too, have been heavily critical of the judge, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who questioned Reinhart’s impartiality during an appearance on Fox News earlier this week when he claimed: “They found some Obama donor judge, not even a judge, a magistrate, to give them the search warrant.”
No Republican elected official has called for violence against Reinhart, and on Friday afternoon Rubio posted on Twitter that anyone threatening violence over the search should be arrested.
Reinhart had previously donated to President Barack Obama’s campaign but also contributed to Republican Jeb Bush when the former Florida governor was running for president during the 2016 cycle.
Major Paul Rogers with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department told POLITICO that they are “aware of the threats” and are working with federal law enforcement. The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for protecting federal judges, declined to comment in detail.
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Few, however, have made public statements about threats made toward Reinhardt, even as conservatives on various social media sites and message boards have directly attacked him over being Jewish and over the fact that in 2009 he served as a defense attorney representing employees of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Fox News in particular received a backlash after airing a doctored photo of Reinhart receiving a foot massage from Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and a longtime companion of Epstein. On Friday, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade posted a mea culpa of sorts, saying the depiction “never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.”
“Right wingers are weaponizing the synagogue affiliation of a judge who was doing his job,” said Jeffrey Salkin, a rabbi and columnist for Religion News Service. “They are slurring the social justice commitments of contemporary Judaism. Their bigotry is appalling, and I would welcome the protests of the Republican Jewish Coalition.”
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The Florida judge who approved the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence has faced an onslaught of antisemitic attacks and threats online, some of which targeted the synagogue he belongs to.https://t.co/vj5PSeefI7
— POLITICO (@politico) August 12, 2022
We were just kidding when we endangered this judge even more than he already is by showing you a doctored picture of Ghislaine Maxwell rubbing his feet because we're a very serious news organization https://t.co/HX6S3tBslu
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 12, 2022
This is so incredibly dangerous.
Fox News is engaging in stochastic terrorism against a federal magistrate judge. https://t.co/HvMFmsEc3H
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) August 11, 2022
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