Former President Donald Trump has filed a motion to remove Judge Tanya Chutkan from his federal case in Washington D.C.
Trump and other critics have suggested Chutkan’s remarks of the former President in previous rulings regarding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 demonstrate her pre-existing opinion that Trump should be criminally charged regarding his alleged involvement in Jan 6.
“President Donald J. Trump, through undersigned counsel, respectfully moves to recuse and disqualify the Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 455(a),” reads the filing which notes fairness and impartiality are central tenets of the criminal justice system. “Both a defendant and the public are entitled to a full hearing, on all relevant issues, by a Court that has not prejudged the guilt of the defendant, and whose neutrality cannot be reasonably questioned.”
“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” the filing continues. “Although Judge Chutkan may genuinely intend to give President Trump a fair trial and may believe that she can do so her public statements unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of outcome.”
BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump Has Filed A Motion To Remove Judge #TanyaChutkan From His Washington DC #January6th Case! pic.twitter.com/IS6c3boC7N
— John Basham (@JohnBasham) September 11, 2023
“The public will reasonably and understandably question whether Judge Chutkan arrived at all of her decisions in this matter impartially, or in fulfillment of her prior negative statements regarding President Trump,” the filing concludes. “Under these circumstances, the law and the overwhelming public interest in the integrity of this historic proceeding require recusal.”
In a late-2021 ruling, Judge Chutkan rejected Trump’s legal team’s attempt to block the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 from accessing White House records.
“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Chutkan wrote in the ruling.
In an October 2022 ruling, Chutkan appeared to suggest Trump should be criminally charged regarding the Capitol riot.
“The people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man – not to the Constitution,” Chutkan wrote per CNN. “It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
The former President commented on Judge Chutkan’s placement on his federal case by announcing his legal team would seek her recusal and possible venue change out of the nation’s Capitol.
“THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ‘ASSIGNED’ TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in early August. “EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF [sic] D.C.”
Trump has previously referred to Chutkan as a “Trump hating judge.”
Chutkan was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2014 by former President Barack Obama.
