(Washington) Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over proceedings at Donald Trump’s federal trial for his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 US presidential election, on Wednesday rejected his request to recuse herself, reaffirming her impartiality.
The ex-president’s lawyers asked him on September 11 to recuse himself, citing comments made by the magistrate during sentencing hearings of participants in the assault on the Capitol, seat of Congress, on January 6, 2021.
That day, hundreds of white-hot Donald Trump supporters violated this sanctuary of American democracy in an attempt to prevent the certification of the victory of his opponent Joe Biden.
“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” they asserted.
But the judge argues that her observations during these hearings, in particular that the participants in the assault on the Capitol had acted “out of blind loyalty to a person who, by the way, remains free today”, were findings of made and responded to the arguments of the defendants to request leniency from the court.
None of her statements in this context, she adds, reflects “a visceral favoritism or antagonism which would make a fair judgment impossible”, a condition set by the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court to motivate a challenge, which must remain an exceptional decision. , she emphasizes.
Donald Trump had already accused Judge Chutkan of “hating” him, when she set the start of the trial for March 4, to the great dismay of the lawyers of the favorite of the Republican primaries who asked that it be held in April 2026, i.e. after the presidential election of November 2024.
Even before his appearance on August 3 to plead not guilty, he had affirmed that his only wrong was to “have contested a rigged election” and denounced an “unfair judge”, apparently in reference to Mme Chutkan.
In the campaign to retake the White House, Donald Trump attributes his legal troubles to the Democratic administration of President Biden, which he could find on his road in 2024 for a revenge of the 2020 election.