A communications director working for the North Carolina Republican Party threatened a reporter, according to a new ProPublica report. In a report about a North Carolina Supreme Court judge using "his perch" as "an instrument of political power," it was revealed that political leaders were eager to defend him. Judge Paul Newby, who won his 2020 race, "supported changes to judicial oversight, watering it down and bringing it under his court's control, making himself and his fellow justices less publicly accountable," the report said.