Tanya Chutkan, the judge in Trump’s 2020 election case in Washington, DC, has refused a request from Trump that she recuse herself.
Trump’s legal team made the request based on some of Chutkan’s prior comments.
The Associated Press reports:
Judge Chutkan denies Trump’s request to recuse herself in federal election subversion caseU.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Wednesday she won’t recuse herself from Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington, rejecting the former president’s claims that her past comments raise doubts about whether she can be fair.Chutkan, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama and was randomly assigned to Trump’s case, said in her written decision that she sees no reason to step aside. The case, scheduled for trial in March, accuses the Republican of illegally scheming to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.There’s a high bar for recusal, and legal experts had widely considered Trump’s request to be a long shot aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the case publicly that could only sour the relationship between the judge and the defense in court…In seeking Chutkan’s recusal, defense lawyers cited statements she had made in two sentencing hearings of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol in which they said she had appeared to suggest that Trump deserved to be prosecuted and held accountable. They said the comments suggested a bias against him that could taint the proceedings.
The Washington Examiner has more:
Chutkan said that while recusal motions served an essential purpose, “justice also demands that judges not recuse without cause,” according to the 20-page decision, which cited a past court decision that stated recusal motions can be a “procedural weapon to harass opponents and delay proceedings.”“Motions for recusal could also be wrongfully deployed as a form of ‘judge shopping,’” Chutkan added.Ever since Trump was indicted in August on four charges accusing him of a scheme to subvert the 2020 election, he has clung to Chutkan’s past rhetoric and harsh sentences given to defendants involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, arguing her words indicate an “apparent prejudgment of guilt.”“The public must have confidence that President Trump’s constitutional rights are being protected by an unbiased judicial officer. No president is a king, but every president is a United States citizen entitled to the protections and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution,” his lawyer John Lauro wrote in a court filing.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
Does anyone really believe Trump can get a fair trial in Washington, DC?
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