Donald Trump supporters are trying to identify and have threatened violence against the 12 jurors who convicted the former president in Manhattan last week.
Their identities have been kept under wraps for their safety and in March Judge Juan Merchan issued an order banning the publication of the jurors’ names and addresses.
But this has not stopped Trump supporters trying to track them down.
According to Advance Democracy, a non-profit organisation, social media is swirling with posts threatening violence against members of the jury, as well as the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The group found posts carrying what it claimed were jurors’ home addresses on fringe pro-Trump message boards with a reputation for harassing and threatening political opponents.
Some of the websites were used by Trump supporters as they planned to storm the US Capitol on Jan 6 in 2021 in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden’s election victory.
On a website known as “The Donald”, which was popular among the Capitol rioters, one user wrote “Dox the Jurors. Dox them now”, referring to the process of “doxxing” – or sharing someone’s personal information online.
On another forum, an anonymous user wrote: “Hope these jurors face some street justice.”
One user voiced the hope that a member of Trump’s legal team would anonymously leak the identity of jurors.
This is not the first time jurors involved in legal action against Trump have been under threat.
The names of members of the Georgia Grand Jury who voted to indict Trump in September 2023, for his attempt to overturn the election in the state, which was narrowly won by Joe Biden, were circulated on far-Right internet groups.
Another tactic is “swatting”, making false alarm calls to the police triggering a response by armed “SWAT” teams.
This was a tactic used against Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, after she ruled that Trump should be excluded from the 2024 presidential ballot.
“Unfortunately, social media has given rise to a whole generation of amateur sleuthing that lacks journalism standards and ethics, leading to countless examples of mistaken identities and wrongful accusations,” Ben Decker, the CEO of Memetica, a threat analysis company, told CNN.
The Telegraph has approached the Trump campaign for comment.
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