CHILLING EFFECT: Prosecutor Quits Case After Texas Lawmen Murders

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  Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, who was murdered at his home on March 30, 2012.MyFoxDFW.com

The murders of two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas, apparently has prompted a federal prosecutor to withdraw from a major racketeering case in Houston, the latest sign that attacks on lawmen are having a chilling effect on the judicial system.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman sent defense attorneys an email Tuesday saying he was withdrawing from the case against the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas due to safety concerns.

“I understand why someone would want to step back, and it makes sense to me, especially people who have families,” defense attorney Richard Ely, who is representing one of the defendants in the case, said. “Jay is a friend of mine, and this was a personal decision.”

The Aryan Brotherhood case, which netted 34 indictments last November, was followed by a statewide warning that the white supremacist prison gang may be planning retaliation. Ely doesn’t know the origins of the threat, but he thinks it was probably someone just “spouting off.”

The Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was named in the threat because it joined several other agencies on a task force aimed at cracking down on white supremacist groups. Since then, District Attorney Mike McLelland and Deputy DA Mark Hasse have been murdered in brazen attacks.

The murders in Kaufman County have prompted tighter security for a number of other prosecutors in the state of Texas, including Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson.

A high-profile attorney told MyFoxHouston.com that he started seeing a group of U.S. Marshals escorting Hileman around the city two months ago, which coincided with the Jan. 31 murder of Hasse.

The recent murders, including the killing of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements, which investigators believe may be linked, have raised questions of security for prosecutors across the country.

“There are 40,000 prosecutors in the country, and anyone who has spent some time trying a case will probably tell you that they receive threats all the time,” Scott Burns, executive director for the National District Attorneys Association, told FoxNews.com. “What happened in Kaufman County is not only an assault on these attorneys but it is also an assault on the rule of law and the judicial system.”

He added: “This is unfortunately something we deal with all the time. The only good news is that to be murdered because of your position as a prosecutor is still very (unlikely).”

Others say that there has been a recent rise of attacks against attorneys at their homes, which has gone largely unnoticed until recently.

“There is some research that suggests these acts are increasing,” Steven Jansen, VP and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, told FoxNews.com. “It may be due to addresses of district attorneys now being available online.”

Incidents like these adversely affect the judicial system’s functioning when people are targeted simply to slow or stop a case from going forward.

Heath Harris, an assistant district attorney in Dallas, told the Los Angeles Times that the recent murders could have lasting effects.

"I've always reassured them (new attorneys) you really don't have to fear retaliation,” he said. "I definitely think people will think twice about becoming a prosecutor."

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TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT: Budget Woes May Hit Travelers With TSA Cuts

Travelers soon could be forced to arrive at the airport many hours before their flight to deal with an expected logjam at TSA checkpoints brought on by automatic budget cuts set to go into effect March 1 -- if Congress and President Obama cannot reach a deficit-reduction deal. 

According to recent warnings, the D.C.-imposed travel nightmare could include longer waits at security checkpoints, customs and even on the tarmac if the across-the-board budget cuts hit.

Washington in the past several days has become deeply entrenched in a partisan blame game over the issue. The heightened rhetoric, which comes as Congress is out for the week, signals how little is being done to actually avert the cuts and how increasingly likely it is they will take hold in one week. 

Most vocal about the harm the indiscriminate cuts could do is the Pentagon, which on Wednesday warned that it may have to furlough 800,000 civilian workers -- effectively cutting their pay by 20 percent. 

But the U.S. Travel Association is warning that while much of the attention is on government workers and government contracts, fliers also will bear the brunt. 

"Travel has the very real potential of becoming the face of the March 1 sequester cuts," Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said in a statement. 

"These across-the-board cuts may punish travelers with flight delays, long security lines at Transportation Security Agency checkpoints and multi-hour waits to clear Customs and Border Protection." 

Dow warned of not only the inconvenience to travelers, but the economic impact to the industry.   

"Travel has led the nation's economic recovery -- generating more than 50 percent of all jobs created since the beginning of the recession. The indiscriminate sequester cuts threaten to derail the travel-led recovery," he said. 

Washington officials have been warning about a range of cuts, should $85 billion in 2013 cuts take effect -- part of more than $1 trillion over the next decade. President Obama, in an effort to press Republicans, has stressed that teachers, emergency responders and others would face the budget squeeze. The warnings have lately included predictions of long lines and delays at the airports. 

A recent report from House Democrats said the Federal Aviation Administration "may shut down or severely reduce traffic at hundreds of lower level federal and contract air traffic control towers," and the Transportation Security Administration "would reduce its frontline workforce, including a seven-day furlough for TSA screeners." This, according to the report, could result in adding to wait times by up to an additional hour at the busiest checkpoints. 

Daniel Werfel, of the White House budget office, also testified on Capitol Hill last week that the FAA would face a $600 million cut under the so-called sequester. 

"A vast majority of their 47,000 employees will be furloughed for one day per pay period for the rest of the year," he said. "And as importantly, this is going to reduce air traffic levels across the country, causing delays and disruptions for all travelers." 

Plus, he said, there would likely be a "curtailment of service" at rural airports. 

In Washington, lawmakers in both parties agree that the cuts will be bad -- particularly for the military. For the most part, they also agree that the federal government needs to achieve this level of deficit reduction, and more, to arrest the seemingly unremitting rise in the national debt. 

But Republicans and Democrats disagree sharply over how they might replace the indiscriminate cuts with something more sensible. These cuts were originally put in motion as part of the 2011 debt-ceiling deal. The idea was to tee up cuts so draconian as to force Congress to come up with a compromise package to replace it. Congress never did. 

At this stage, Obama is urging Congress to pass a short-term package and eventually nail down a proposal that blends cuts with increased revenue through closing tax loopholes. Republicans, though, are resistant to kicking the can down the road any more, and do not want to add more tax revenue into the equation -- noting that they already conceded to tax rate hikes on top earners as part of the fiscal crisis deal. 

The debate has turned instead to a question of who is to blame. Obama has aggressively pressured Republicans, claiming their resistance to tax hikes is holding up a deal. 

But Republicans say it's on Obama to come up with a compromise that both parties could support. House Speaker John Boehner, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday, noted that the sequester idea originated from the White House. 

"Having first proposed and demanded the sequester, it would make sense that the president lead the effort to replace it," Boehner wrote.

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