Global Courant
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Wednesday that she will not recant from Donald Trump’s statements. 2020 Washington election interference casedismissing the former president’s claims about her past comments doubts arise about whether she can be honest.
Chutkan, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama and randomly assigned to Trump’s case, said in her written decision that she sees no reason to step aside. In the case, which will go to trial in March, the Republican is accused of illegal plans to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
There is a high bar for recusal, and legal experts had widely viewed Trump’s request as a gamble aimed at publicly undermining the legitimacy of the case, which could only sour the relationship between the judge and defense in court .
Attorneys for Trump did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
In seeking to rescind Chutkan, defense attorneys cited statements she made during two sentencing hearings of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying she appeared to suggest Trump deserved to be prosecuted and held accountable to be called. They said the comments suggested a bias against him that could taint the proceedings.
But Chutkan strongly objected to these characterizations of her comments.
“It should be noted that the court has never taken the position that the defense ascribes to it: that former ‘President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,’” Chutkan wrote. “And the defense does not cite a single example in which the court has ever uttered these words. or the like.”
It is the second time that Trump has unsuccessfully tried to remove a judge from one of the criminal cases against him. Judge Juan Manuel Merchanwho oversees Trump’s New York hush money criminal caserejected similar demands that he step aside, saying he is confident in his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Chutkan stood out as one of the harshest punishments of the suspects charged the January 6 uprisingin which a gang of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. Trump, the early frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has personally attacked her on social media as he tries to claim the prosecution is politically motivated.
Federal Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s team said yes no valid basis to have Chutkan removed from the case. Like Chutkan, they said she never said Trump was legally or morally responsible for the events of Jan. 6 or that he deserved to be punished.
Chutkan wrote in her order that while denial is a valid step if warranted, judges should not step aside “without cause,” as she suggested Trump lawyers asked her to do.
Trump’s team, in their challenge attempt, had pointed to a Jan. 6 defendant sentencing hearing in which Chutkan said the rioters had “blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” Chutkan wrote in her decision Wednesday that she merely stated an “undisputed fact” — that Trump was free — “but it went no further.”
Chutkan is also considering a request from Smith’s team a narrow gag order that would prevent Trump from making “inflammatory” and “intimidating” comments about witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case. Trump’s lawyers objected to that request this week.
Chutkan has scheduled a start to the trial March 4, 2024, over strong objections from lawyers who said this would not give them enough time to prepare. The case in Washington federal court is one of them four criminal cases faces the former president as he tries to win back the White House.
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Richer reported from Boston.
