Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, the 25-year-career federal prosecutor who has a million followers on Twitter, shared some of the vitriol she received via email this weekend. The email Vance shared, which she insouciantly and sarcastically characterized as “fan mail,” is a brutal burst of violent misogynistic rhetoric.
In between the f-bomb and the b-word, the irate emailer wants Vance to “die.” The emailer’s threat may be protected under the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech, but the “die” threat is ironically triggered by Vance exercising her own right to the same constitutional protection.
I get email from fans pic.twitter.com/FgwhUwW7bR
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 17, 2023
Vance appeared as a guest on MSNBC this weekend, answering questions about a report that the U.S. Department of Justice has already spent nearly $2 million on security for Special Counsel Jack Smith as he pursues charges against former President Donald Trump.
Vance — a law and order Democrat — said that as a prosecutor you knew that some people would “not be happy with you” and that in extreme cases “contracts were taken out on prosecutors.”
Calling Trump’s threats against the FBI and DOJ “heinous” Vance continues: “What I never expected as a prosecutor and what none of these people on the the special counsel’s team should be forced to confront is the notion that the former President of the United States would be the one triggering those attacks on them. It’s heinous, it’s unacceptable… When the attack is coming from the inside, something is seriously wrong.”
. @JoyceWhiteVance on the hateful rhetoric DOJ is facing.
— American Voices with Alicia Menendez (@AliciaOnMSNBC) July 16, 2023
"The notion that the former President of the United States would be the one triggering those attacks on them. It’s heinous, it’s unacceptable… When the attack is coming from the inside, something is seriously wrong.” pic.twitter.com/tTy7gksY1U
Vance asserts that the “real flaw in today’s Republican Party is that they’re not standing up with a unified voice and condemning it.”
What’s unsaid there is that such a condemnation creates the possibility that they would lose the vote of Vance’s threatening emailer, and fear of losing that constituency is driving GOP political maneuvers.
Vance defends the FBI and prosecutors and says, referring to Trump’s stoking the fire, that “when the attack is coming from the inside something is seriously wrong.”
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy‘s tweet upon the announcement of Trump’s indictment — saying “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump” — is typical of the GOP response Vance decries:
Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 9, 2023
It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.
I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump…
Trump himself has told his followers that Special Counsel Smith is “deranged” and looks like a “crackhead,” repeatedly slamming Smith in social media posts Trump rival Chris Christie has said are “so stupid” he doesn’t know how to respond.
