I keep seeing this being misinterpreted. The judge is evaluating a potential charge of *making terrorist threats* (like announcing you’ve planted a bomb in a public building, which is harmful & a crime whether you really have or not).
https://twitter.com/peteskomoroch/status/1376741708277276673
With respect to *that specific charge* the judge is being totally reasonable. Talking on a private small group chat might well be (an element of) conspiracy to commit the crime you’re talking about, but it’s not a public threat.
If you were talking about kidnapping someone (or doing some other violence) on a publicly accessible forum, then the very same conversation might indeed be a terrorist threat.
The judge isn’t saying they’re not terrorists, or that they didn’t conspire, or that they’re very fine people who should be sent home with a stern warning. He’s talking about one particular charge prosecutors wanted to add to the mountain they’re rightly facing.
There is, in the abstract, a sort of interesting legal question here. If you text one person to say (in earnest) that you plan to commit a violent crime (against some third party), that’s probably not a terrorist threat. If you say it on Twitter, it is.
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