U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s case in Washington, D.C., reportedly randomly selected to do so. Chutkin has in the past two years issued some of the most extreme sentences in cases involving the Jan 6, 2021 events at the Capitol.
Chutkan is an Obama appointee who once worked at the same law firm that employed Hunter Biden and also did work for Burisma. She has claimed that she will not let her personal politics and preferences influence the case. She also stated, however, that former President Trump’s campaign against President Biden will have to take a backseat to the case, however.
The fact that one political opponent is bringing charges against his opposition does not seem to be important to Chutkin.
“What the effects of my order are on a political campaign are not going to influence my decision. This is a criminal trial,” Chutkan said. “The defendant’s desire to conduct a campaign, to respond to political opponents, has to yield.”
Making news is the fact that in the recent proceedings of the case, Chutkin reportedly “rolled her eyes” and placed her head in her hands when former President Donald Trump’s attorneys mentioned that President Biden’s DOJ was prosecuting the president’s leading opponent. Her over the top reaction as clear evidence of her views on the situation.
MSNCB reports:
MSNBC host Katie Phang asked network reporter Hugo Lowell last Saturday about the body language from both Judge Chutkan and Trump’s defense team during the hearing that took place earlier this week.
“Ya know the judge was sympathetic to some of the Trump lawyers’ kind of arguments. Ya know, they were making a case that, ya know, being a defense lawyer is difficult, especially with a client like Trump,” Lowell said. “And I think she kind of accepted that, she has a defense background herself.”
“But other times, like, I think she kind of grew exasperated by all the discussion about politics,” he continued. “Ya know at one point she kind of put her face in her hands, she kind of rolled her eyes when ya know there was another discussion about, ya know, the Biden Administration coming after Trump.”
Lowell noted that Trump attorney John Lauro “picked up on that” throughout the course of the hearing and shifted the discussion elsewhere.
Judge Chutkan rolled her eyes and put her face in her hands yesterday when Trump’s lawyers pointed out the political nature of the case and the fact the sitting president’s DOJ is criminally charging his presumptive 2024 opponent: pic.twitter.com/NEj1L40GUU
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) August 12, 2023
In the past, Chutkin has made it clear what side she is on in matters between Biden and Trump.
The Hill reports that Chutkin has ruled on a Trump case before. In November, 2021, Trump filed a lawsuit that sought to block the National Archives from handing over documents related to the events of Jan. 6 to the House select committee investigating the attack. In her ruling, Chutkin denied Trump’s request on the grounds that “President Biden was best suited to decide on matters of executive privilage,” The Hill stated.
“Plaintiff does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President’s judgement. His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity,” Chutkin wrote in her opinion.
Chutkin clearly ignored the judgement of a former President in her statement, putting Biden above Trump.
But Chutkin has sided with Trump in the matter of his first amendment rights and Trump’s ability to make “non-sensitive” evidence public, but holding that he may not release information about potential witnesses – including those who may be his opponents for the 2024 Republican nomination, The Washington Post reports.
Chutin warned Trump, however, against making inflammatory statements about the case, stating that if he did make such statements, “the greater the urgency will be to complete the trial to ensure a jury pool from which we can select an impartial jury,” the Post continued.
Whether statements about the case are “inflammitory” it seeems will be up to Chutkin to decide, putting subjective power over former President Trump’s statements in the judge’s hands, and in fact limiting Trump’s statements and answers to accusations to words that can be argued are not inflammitory.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 28, at which Chutkin is expected to set a trial date. The prosecution has asked for proceedings to begin Jan. 2, 2024, 13 days before the Iowa Republican caucuses.
For his part, Trump has posted about being indicted on the matters in the first place, saying in early August:
“HOW CAN MY CORRUPT POLITICAL OPPONENT PUT ME ON TRIAL(S) DURING A CAMPAIGN THAT I AM WINNING (BY A LOT!), BUT FORCING ME TO SPEND TIME AND MONEY AWAY FROM THE “CAMPAIGN TRAIL” IN ORDER TO FIGHT BOGUS ACCUSATIONS & CHARGES? IS THIS GOING TO BE THE FUTURE OF ELECTIONS IN AMERICA? CAN A PRESIDENT ORDER HIS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO INDICT AN OPPONENT JUST PRIOR TO AN ELECTION? WHY DIDN’T THEY DO THIS 2.5 YEARS AGO? wHY NOW? NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN THE USA. THIS IS ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
Rephrased from: The Republic Brief By: Trump Knows
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