Former US President Donald Trump on Monday officially requested the recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is to preside over proceedings at his federal trial for her attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 election, challenging her impartiality.
The judge has already set the start of this 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, well after the presidential election of November 2024.
Donald Trump denounced Judge Chutkan’s decision, accusing her on his Truth Social network of “hating” him.
Even before his appearance on August 3 to plead not guilty, he had affirmed that his only fault was “having contested a rigged election” and had called himself an “unfair judge”, apparently in reference to Judge Chutkan.
In support of their appeal, his lawyers cite 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 say in their motion.
Thus, in October 2022, during the sentencing to 15 months in prison of a participant in the assault on the Capitol, she observed that the participants had acted “out of blind loyalty to a person who, by the way, remains free Today “.
“Her public statements inevitably taint the procedure, whatever the outcome,” argue Donald Trump’s lawyers, arguing that as a result “Judge Chutkan should recuse herself and ask the clerk to randomly entrust this case to a other judge.”
Most legal experts view the request as virtually doomed to failure since it would require the judge to recuse herself of her own free will.
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.