talc claims

A bottle of Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Illustration

(Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday said he has received threats related to the bankruptcy of a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary he is overseeing, with some messages suggesting that the case is an effort to “cover up” harms allegedly caused by J&J’s talc products.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey said at a hearing that he and his staff have been getting angry and menacing messages through phone calls, voicemails, emails and social media posts since his February decision not to dismiss the bankruptcy case of LTL Management LLC.

J&J created the subsidiary in October, assigned its talc liabilities to it and put it in bankruptcy a few days later, in an attempt to resolve approximately 38,000 lawsuits alleging that its Baby Powder and other talc products caused mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.

J&J, which has denied the allegations and said that its products