Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is urging federal officials to investigate pizza deliveries being made to various judges, describing them as threats.

“These deliveries are threats intended to show that those seeking to intimidate the targeted judge know the judge’s address or their family members’ addresses,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a May 6 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

The pizzas have been sent to various judges, including Supreme Court justices, and relatives of judges, including the sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Some deliveries were made in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Anderl was murdered at his home in 2020 by a person posing as a deliveryman.

Salas, who is based in New Jersey, said during an April appearance on MSNBC that hundreds of pizzas have been sent to judges across the country, at times late at night.

“What does that say to those judges? It says, ‘I know where you live, I know where your kids live, and do you want to end up like Judge Salas, do you want to end up like her son?’” she said.

She said she was told the deliveries were under investigation.

“These incidents threaten not only judges and their families, but also judicial independence and the rule of law,” Durbin told Bondi and Patel. 

“It is imperative that the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigate these anonymous or pseudonymous deliveries and that those responsible be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Durbin said that officials should immediately launch an investigation. He said that if they have already started probing the deliveries, he requests an update on what authorities have found.

Durbin also asked that officials provide information on any steps they’ve taken to protect the judges who have received, or whose family members have received, the pizzas.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

Bondi told reporters outside the White House in Washington on Wednesday that she was just learning about the pizza deliveries.

When asked if she had a comment on the situation, she said, “Not yet, but we will.”

Bondi and Patel later held a press event announcing the arrests of more than 200 people who allegedly targeted children for sex offenses. Neither took questions after the announcement.

The Trump administration is pushing forward with seeking to forge a peace deal in Ukraine, despite recent warnings it could give up trying to mediate if progress isn’t made, as well as seeking to repair bilateral US-Russia relations.

“With a frost covering Europe’s energy relations with Russia, officials from Washington and Moscow have held discussions about the U.S. helping to revive Russian gas sales to the continent,” Reuters has cited eight sources to say.

Europe, other than a couple holdout countries like Hungary and Slovakia, drastically slashed its Russian gas imports soon after February 2022 and the start of the Ukraine war. Gazprom subsequently posted a $7 billion loss in 2023.

Russian gas coming back online to the continent is being presented as a key incentive by Washington:

Sources close to the bilateral discussions said carving out a renewed role for Moscow in the European Union’s gas market could help cement a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Though much of Europe has sought alternative supply, some buyers have remained, and industry officials say more could return once a peace deal is agreed.

As Russia’s economy was hit hard the loss of most of Europe’s gas market three years ago, it has increasingly solidified its partnership and dependence on China for energy and industrial trade.

We reported earlier Thursday that Presidents Xi and Putin discussed Russia’s Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline project in Moscow ahead of Victory Day events. However, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak specified the two leaders avoided the somewhat contentious question of avoiding the pipeline’s transit through Mongolia. Russia plans to boost supplies of oil, gas, and LNG to China, Bloomberg has noted Thursday.

Russia currently supplies 19% of Europe’s demand, mostly LNG, down from 40% in terms of prewar levels.

As for progress on Ukraine peace, Vice President JD Vance just offered some thoughts in Munich:

Washington wants to move away from the “obsession” with a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said. The US is more interested in shaping a durable peace agreement with Moscow, he told a Munich Leaders Meeting on Wednesday.

Ukraine had floated a one-month ceasefire as a counter to Russia’s 72-hour truce proposal to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

However, Moscow has rejected Kiev’s plan, arguing that Ukrainian troops, which have been on the backfoot for months, would use it to regroup and strengthen their military posture.

Vance stressed that the US remains interested in a “long-term settlement” of the conflict rather than a short-term one. 

“We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the what would the long-term settlement look like? And we’ve tried to consistently advance the ball,” the vice president said, warning the Russians to make the necessary concessions. 

“Certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was you’re asking for too much,” he said. “But this is how negotiations unfold.”