“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned.”
Former President Donald Trump has asked District Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself from a federal election subversion case brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith, according to a court filing submitted on Sept. 11.
In the filing (pdf), President Trump pointed to public comments that Judge Chutkan, an Obama appointee, made in cases involving Jan. 6, 2021, protesters. Those statements and others “unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of outcome,” it said.
“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” the filing stated. “Such statements, made before this case began and without due process, are inherently disqualifying.”
The judge is the only person ruling on this motion, meaning that any decision on her recusal would come solely from her. It isn’t clear if she will recuse herself, but if she does, a new judge would be assigned.
Should Judge Chutkan disagree, she’ll continue to preside over the case. If she denies the request, President Trump’s attorneys could petition an appeals court for a writ of mandamus, which would require the judge to step aside.
In the court papers filed on Sept. 11, the former president’s lawyers pointed to October 2022 remarks that Judge Chutkan made before Mr. Smith, the special counsel, was appointed. She was commenting during the sentencing phase for Jan. 6 protester Christine Priola, a Cleveland schools worker who got 15 months in prison.
“This was nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government by individuals who were mad that their guy lost. I see the videotapes,” she said, according to President Trump’s motion. “I see the footage of the flags and the signs that people were carrying and the hats they were wearing and the garb.”
She then claimed that the “people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man—not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant; not to the ideals of this country; and not to the principles of democracy. It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
