Doxing Campaign Expands From Judges to Include Capitol Police and Lawmakers

WASHINGTON — U.S. Capitol police and members of Congress are the latest to get hit with a wave of doxing in which anonymous perpetrators send pizzas to their homes under an assumed name.

Doxing refers to gathering personal information about someone and using it in a public way intended to shame or intimidate them.

Until now, judges in seven states have been the primary victims of the doxing. The U.S. Marshals Service recently reported more than 100 of the incidents.

Each of the judges has presided over lawsuits that had strong political overtones, such as opposing Trump administration policies.

They included Michelle Childs of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

In Childs’ case, she participated in a ruling against President Donald Trump’s authority to fire an independent government watchdog.

Childs has received seven of the pizzas.

The pizzas sometimes are sent under the name of Daniel Anderl. He was the son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas.

He was fatally shot in 2020 at the judge’s home in New Jersey by a disgruntled attorney posing as a delivery driver. Her husband was seriously injured.

The attack on Salas’ home and family led Congress to approve the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act in 2022. It restricts public access to a judge’s personal identifying information.

Enforcement of the federal law remains as elusive as tracking down internet searches from unknown persons who could be located anywhere.

The pizzas arrive without any notes or other explanation but the message is clear, according to police. It is that this time we’re sending you a pizza but next time it might be something more unpleasant.

The doxing has continued for at least four months. U.S. Capitol police acknowledge they do not know who is doing it in the Washington area but they intend to find out.

“These recent pizza deliveries are troubling and yet again, bring to light the heightened threat landscape we are living in,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. “Violence and threats, of any kind, targeted at elected officials will not be tolerated.”

They declined to identify which members of Congress are receiving the pizzas, only that they are both Republicans and Democrats.

The laws that have been used to prosecute the anonymous senders are sketchy. 

There are two federal laws that could potentially address doxing: the Interstate Communications Statute and the Interstate Stalking Statute. They do not specifically mention doxing and they are rarely enforced successfully against it.

The Interstate Communications Statute only criminalizes explicit threats to kidnap or injure someone. There were no explicit threats with the pizza deliveries.

The Interstate Stalking Statute is designed primarily to prevent online harassment but is rarely enforced because of the privacy concerns in tracking internet use.

Instead, anti-doxing enforcement is left mostly to the states. California and Colorado reportedly have the most effective laws against it.

Florida recently succeeded in tracking down one of the doxing suspects. Jonathan Mark Miller, a 49-year-old Florida resident, is charged with “fraudulent use of personal information.” He is accused of making online pizza orders that were sent to two state judges.

In each case, the orders were made using the judges’ names, home telephone numbers and office email addresses, according to a prosecutor’s affidavit.

Despite the arrest, other doxing incidents with pizzas continue nationwide, indicating other people are involved.

You can reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and X