(LibertySociety.com) – Former President Donald Trump has blasted Washington D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan since his case landed in her courtroom. Chutkan will be presiding over his 2020 election indictment from Special Counsel Jack Smith, but Trump believes she should recuse herself for partisan rhetoric that she used during the court proceedings of two January 6 defendants.
Trump’s attorneys filed a motion on September 11, requesting Chutkan’s recusal. His lawyers acknowledge that Chutkan has said that she will conduct a fair trial, but they argue that “her public statements unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of the outcome.”
One public comment that Chutkan made was from October 2022, when she was sentencing Christine Priola for her actions on January 6, 2021. Trump’s lawyers submitted the transcript from the hearing where Chutkan discussed Priola and others’ loyalty to the 45th President. She claimed that the defendants put Trump before the Constitution and insinuated that he should be in prison. Trump’s attorneys believe that the meaning behind Chutkan’s comment “is inescapable—President Trump is free, but should not be.”
The filing also includes another public comment from a December 2021 sentencing hearing, where Chutkan commended Robert Scott Palmer, a January 6 defendant, for previously pointing out that none of the people who promoted the rally in Washington D.C. have been charged with any crimes. She claimed to have her opinions on the matter but said they were not relevant to Palmer’s case.
Trump was indicted by Smith on August 1 on multiple conspiracy charges resulting from his actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021. Chutkan recently set the trial date for March 4, 2024, just one day before the important Super Tuesday primary elections.
Trump has claimed that Smith’s indictment is an attempt to interfere with his 2024 presidential election. He believes that the Biden administration is politically targeting him to financially drain and distract him from campaigning. Thus far, this and the other four indictments against him have dominated news headlines. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are working to try and have Trump’s name removed from the ballot, but he has only gained in the polls with each new indictment against him.
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