'We Know Where You Live:' Hundreds of Unsolicited Pizza Deliveries Target Federal Judges in Alleged Intimidation Campaign

A chilling new tactic is sweeping the United States judiciary: strangers ordering pizzas to federal judges' homes to prove they know exactly where they live. The campaign, which federal prosecutors have labelled 'pizza doxxing,' has now touched more than 50 judges nationwide, according to testimony from sitting jurists.

It unfolds against a backdrop of surging judicial threats, an embattled US Marshals Service, and a White House that has refused to acknowledge any link between presidential rhetoric and the violence that judges say they increasingly fear.

A Murdered Son's Name Turned Into a Weapon

The most disturbing feature of the campaign is not the pizza itself. It is the name on the order.

In approximately two dozen cases across the country, judges received unsolicited pizza deliveries addressed to Daniel Anderl, the late son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, the New Jersey judge whose family was attacked in 2020. On 19 July 2020, Salas and her husband, Mark Anderl, were celebrating their son Daniel's 20th birthday at their New Jersey home when the doorbell rang.

A man posing as a delivery driver opened fire, killing Daniel, her only child, and wounding Mark. The gunman, Roy Den Hollander, was a self-proclaimed men's rights lawyer who fled the scene and later took his own life in upstate New York.

Whoever is placing these orders now exploits that tragedy with deliberate precision. Salas has described the message the perpetrators are sending as: 'I know where you live. I know where your kids live. Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? Do you want to end up like her son?'

Seattle District Judge Robert Lasnik, who has spoken publicly about attacks on the judiciary, said that to his knowledge more than 50 judges nationwide have been pizza-doxxed, not including judges' families and associates.

He said he and his children all received pizza boxes in Anderl's name after he gave press interviews about threats facing the courts. Salas told CBS News that the campaign has since expanded beyond federal courts. State judges are now being targeted, including those in Florida and Colorado. Colorado Chief Justice Monica Marquez has 'gotten so many pizzas she's stopped counting,' Salas said.

Psychological Warfare and the Investigation That Struggles to Keep Up

Security experts are not treating this as a prank. Analysts have warned that 'pizza doxxing' could be used to lure a judge to their front door in order to confirm their address for a potential future attack. Former FBI agent Mike Clark, who now heads the Society of Retired FBI Agents, told CBS News that the incidents send a threatening message. 'To do this invites tragedy and something terrible to occur,' Clark said. 'They're mocking the justice system and playing a dangerous game.'

A US Marshals Service official confirmed to CBS News that the agency is 'looking into all the unsolicited pizza deliveries to federal judges and taking appropriate steps to address the matter.' Lasnik acknowledged the difficulty of the investigation: 'They're looking into it,' he said of the Marshals. 'But it's very difficult in this day and age to track where these things originate.'

The campaign is believed to have begun in late February 2025, with the US Marshals Service noting in a March memo from its Southern District of New York office that the incidents appeared linked to high-profile court cases. In May 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin escalated the matter formally.

Durbin sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel urging an investigation into what he called 'threats intended to show that those seeking to intimidate the targeted judge know the judge's address or their family members' address.' Durbin's letter highlighted the inclusion of Supreme Court justices and judges' children among the targets, demanding a response by 20 May.

One arrest has been made in a related case. In Florida, felony charges were filed against a suspect connected to pizza-doxxing incidents targeting two Hillsborough County judges. Court documents show that on 5 March, an online order for the equivalent of roughly £199 ($252.88) was placed with a Pizza Hut for delivery to a judge's home, using the judge's name, home phone number, and office email address. Investigators, armed with subpoenas, linked a suspect to the IP address used to place the orders. The perpetrators behind the wider federal campaign remain unidentified.

Threats Against Judges at a Multi-Decade High

The pizza deliveries are one front in a broader assault on the judiciary. Last year, 400 federal judges were the targets of serious threats; a 78 per cent jump compared to four years ago, according to the U.S. Marshals. In the last fiscal year, there were 564 threats against judges, up from 509 in fiscal year 2024. From October to the end of January alone, the agency recorded 176 threats.

Federal District Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has served for 44 years, said he faced 'dozens if not hundreds' of death threats after he temporarily blocked President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order and called it 'blatantly unconstitutional.' The threats did not stop at letters and emails. Armed sheriff's deputies appeared at Coughenour's front door responding to a hoax report that he had killed his wife. A bomb threat followed the next day. A congressman subsequently posted a wanted poster featuring Coughenour and other federal judges who had ruled against the administration.

Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall, a company that scrubs judges' personal data from the web — described a shift in the nature of the threats. 'The threats used to be, 'you ruled against me and I want to kill you,' ' Zayas told CBS News. 'Now the kind of threats we're seeing, there's a whole other sphere of saying 'I want to influence what you do.' It's mob mentality.'

Retired Federal Judge John Jones, appointed by former President George W. Bush, said he believes the Trump administration is actively trying to delegitimise the federal courts. He and 55 other retired judges formed a bipartisan group to lobby the White House on the issue. 'In very plain English: if we're not careful we're gonna get a judge killed,' Jones said. 'It's just that stark.'

Salas, speaking to 60 Minutes on 1 March 2026, placed the weight of the moment plainly. 'I sit here as Daniel's mum. I sit here as a woman who lost her only child,' she said. 'When I see that kind of irresponsible behaviour coming from our political leaders and people in power, it makes me sad. And it makes me very worried, because I worry for our democracy, I really do.'

Whether elected officials will act before someone else answers the wrong knock at the door remains the question American democracy cannot afford to leave unanswered.