On Thursday, ProPublica published an explosive investigative report into the rise of Paul Newby, the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and a right-wing crusader who believes God called him to lead the court and deliver “biblical justice.”

The report, written by the journalist Doug Bock Clark, exposes the lengths Newby has gone to over the past 20 years in order to transform the state’s judiciary into an instrument of the GOP, including overturning precedent to facilitate Republican priorities, demoting judges who don’t share his agenda, and weaponizing the judicial ethics commission to harass Black colleagues. When Newby was running for office in 2004, judicial elections were nonpartisan, and state law provided for a public funding option for campaigns, which most judicial candidates chose to use. But Newby sought and received the endorsement of the state Republican party anyway. And after Republicans won control of the state legislature in 2010, Newby began working with them behind the scenes to enact more changes to judicial elections. Sure enough, in 2013, lawmakers got rid of the public financing option—a move, Clark says, that Newby supported.

You should read the article, if for no other reason than the state’s Republican officials really, really don’t want you to. Not only did they decline to answer Clark’s questions for the record, they threatened him for daring to ask.

In his report, Clark writes that he repeatedly reached out to Newby and the court system’s communications team, as is standard practice, but received no comment. When Clark went to a judicial conference to try to ask Newby questions in person, Newby had him escorted from the event. Clark also sent questions to Sarah Newby, who is both the finance director for the state Republican Party and also Paul Newby’s daughter. At this point, Clark received an email from the state GOP’s communications director, Matt Mercer, accusing ProPublica of waging a “jihad” against “NC Republicans,” and insinuating that President Donald Trump would take action against ProPublica if it didn’t end its investigation.

“I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,” wrote Mercer. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.”