New Jersey-based blogger Hal Turner arriving at Federal Court today in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A white supremacist blogger was arrested at his New Jersey home Wednesday and charged with threatening to assault or murder three Chicago-based judges who refused to overturn local ordinances banning handguns.
Hal Turner, 47, a former Internet radio talk show host, was taken into custody by FBI agents who went to his North Bergen home with a search warrant, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Prosecutors quoted a Turner Internet posting as saying: "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed."
The posting included a map showing the Everett Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where the three judges are based. It said a map showing the judges' homes would later be added.
The posting also referred to the murder of the mother and husband of Chicago-based federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in February 2005 ? a crime that sent shock waves across the nation.
"Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court didn't get the hint after those killings," the posting said. "It appears another lesson is needed."
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced the arrest, which stemmed from a complaint filed in federal court in Chicago....
Prosecutors ask to exclude ties to FBI in retrial of N.J. blogger accused of threatening judges (click here)
By The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk
February 17, 2010, 5:27AM
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to ban right-wing blogger Hal Turner from revealing to a jury he was an FBI informant in a retrial for allegedly threatening three federal judges in Chicago, a report in NorthJersey.com said.Prosecutors said allowing argument about his status as an informant would just distract the jury, but his defense said he was trained to make statements similar to the ones charged as a threat in the case, according to the report. A judge declared a mistrial last December in the case against the New Jersey blogger. Prosecutors had argued that Turner knew his Internet tirade, which insisted the judges "deserved to be killed," could provoke violence by members of his radical audience. The defense likened Turner to a "shock jock" and argued he was expressing an opinion protected by the First Amendment.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
JUDGE SIDES WITH TURNER! TRIAL BEGINS MONDAY
In yet another legal victory for radio host and blogger Hal Turner, a federal judge has ruled Turner's role as a national security intelligence operative for the FBI can be admitted at trial.The government is prosecuting Turner over an editorial he published last June which criticized three federal judges who violated the US Constitution and who ignored a recent US Supreme Court ruling. The editorial called the Judges "traitors" and said they "deserve to be killed."
The government claims that "deserve to be killed" is a threat to actually go kill them. Hal Turner says "deserve" is an opinion; protected free speech....
7th Circuit Judges May Testify in Retrial Over Web Threats (click here)
The National Law Journal
February 26, 2010
Federal prosecutors are beefing up their case against Web radio talk show host Harold "Hal" Turner, charged with encouraging listeners to murder three federal appellate judges. In Turner's retrial, which starts next week in Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutors plan to call those judges to the stand.
Last week the prosecutors, who work in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, overcame objections from Turner's lawyer, Michael Orozco, and won permission to have the three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago provide testimony, according to documents filed in the case. The targets of Turner's vitriol were Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Richard Posner and Judge William Bauer, a former U.S. Attorney in Chicago.
Turner was indicted last June after he posted Internet messages that said the judges "deserve to be killed" for their June 2 ruling allowing a Chicago handgun ban to stand. (The same ban is now being challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.) In a June 3 post, Turner provided the names, work addresses, phone numbers and photos of Easterbrook, Posner and Bauer. He called them "traitors" and said "their blood will replenish the tree of liberty."
Turner has pleaded not guilty, arguing that he's just a shock jock exercising his First Amendment rights and that he never intended any harm against the judges. His lawyer, Michael Orozco of Bailey & Orozco in Newark, N.J, also won permission from the trial judge to submit evidence that Turner was once a paid FBI informant who attended extremist group meetings and then provided information to the bureau....
