'Sick of these activist judges': MAGA demanded 'hellfire' for judge whose home burned down

The home of one state judge in South Carolina who was publicly criticized by an official in President Donald Trump's administration was destroyed in a fire last weekend. The judge had recently been targeted by threats from Trump supporters.

Judge Diane Goodstein, who has been in her position since being elected by the state legislature in 1998, escaped from the fire along with her husband, former Democratic state lawmaker Arnold Goodstein, though Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) wrote that the fire killed their pets and Arnold Goodstein remains hospitalized from injuries suffered during his escape. The St. Paul Fire District — which responded to the fire at her Edisto Beach home on Saturday – posted to Facebook that the Goodsteins escaped by jumping from an elevated first floor.

"If this was targeted political violence or arson, those responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Mace wrote.

According to a Monday report in the Daily Beast, several MAGA-aligned social media accounts with thousands of followers posted attacks on South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein. Those threats came in response to a post by Department of Justice (DOJ) official Harmeet Dhillon, who President Donald Trump put in charge of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. Dhillon attacked Judge Goodstein for refusing to allow the Trump administration to access sensitive information from the state's voter rolls.

"his @TheJusticeDept’s @CivilRights will not stand for a state court judge’s hasty nullification of our federal voting laws," Dhillon wrote on X in September. "I will allow nothing to stand in the way of our mandate to maintain clean voter rolls. One Citizen, One Vote!"

"Thank you. I’m so sick of these activist 'judges' thinking they run the country," responded one X user with more than 6,000 followers. "Isn’t there something that can be done about them?"

"Rain Holy hell fire onto these judges who interfere with the Executive branch," another user wrote in a now-deleted post.

"Diane S. Goodstein, may all your evil wishes and evil deeds directed towards Trump and the MAGA boomerang back and stick to you and yours a thousandfold," read another reply.

An arson investigation is reportedly underway, though officials have not yet determined whether the fire was intentionally ignited.

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