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Posted: 2024-01-09T00:11:52Z | Updated: 2024-01-09T00:11:52Z

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trumps criminal election interference case in Washington, D.C., appears to have been targeted by a swatting call, in which police were falsely led to believe there was a shooting at her home.

At about 10 p.m. Sunday, the Metropolitan Police Department responded to a report of an active shooting at a house in Washington. Officers quickly determined no shooting took place, according to a police report obtained by HuffPost.

NBC News revealed on Monday that the home belongs to Chutkan. The judge was at home alone when officers arrived but was not injured during the police response, according to the MPD report.

It remains unclear who made the emergency call. The incident appears to be an act of swatting, or falsely reporting a crime to prompt a heavy and tactical police response (such as by a SWAT team) to a specific location, putting everyone involved at risk.

Although police didnt identify a motive for the call, it came not long after Chutkan denied Trumps request for immunity in the election interference case thats set to begin March 4 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability, she wrote in her ruling last month .

Trump has repeatedly taken public jabs at Chutkan in front of more than 6 million followers on Truth Social, his own social media platform. He called her a true Trump hater, in all capital letters, in October and claimed that she would not be able to preside over a fair trial against him, according to ABC News .

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Judges across the nation have faced a deluge of threats since the 2020 election, when Trump began spreading baseless claims that the presidency was stolen from him, even though Democrat Joe Biden won more than 81 million votes to about 74 million for Trump and the Electoral College count went to Biden, 306-232. Multiple lawsuits and attempts to overturn the vote, including the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, ultimately failed.

In 2021, more than 4,500 threats were made against U.S. judges as political tensions grew, Reuters reported . In 2022, a man was charged with attempting to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, CNN reported . Recently, authorities have been looking into threats against the Colorado Supreme Court judges who ruled that Trumps name could not be included on the states primary ballot.

As such, Chutkan, like many other judges , is no stranger to threats in the current political climate. A Texas woman was arrested in August 2023 in connection with a racist voicemail threat to kill Chutkan over the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

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Consider supporting HuffPost starting at $2 to help us provide free, quality journalism that puts people first.

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. We hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

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Chutkan, who was nominated by Barack Obama, has developed a reputation for handing down sentences against Jan. 6 defendants that are more severe than what prosecutors had sought, according to The Associated Press.

Support Free Journalism

Consider supporting HuffPost starting at $2 to help us provide free, quality journalism that puts people first.

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. We hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Support HuffPost