District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday denied a request by former President Donald Trump’s legal team to withdraw from the 2020 election interference trial in Washington.
Lawyers for the 77-year-old former president argued that statements made by Chutkan while presiding over the trial of the defendants who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 were “disqualifying” and would “taint” the proceedings against Trump. .
“[T]His statement certainly does not show deep prejudice that would make a fair hearing impossible – the standard to withdraw is based on statements with intrajudicial origins,” Chutkan, 61, wrote in his opinion.
Chutkan argued in his opinion that the statement “does not show ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that the court has conducted itself ‘in a manner that supports disqualification.'”
In their motion to withdraw, Trump’s lawyers cited Chutkan’s statement during the October 2022 sentencing of convicted Capitol rioter Christine Priola, accusing the judge of implying that the former president should be behind bars for his actions that day of the riot.
“[T]he mobbed people that the Capitol was there in loyalty, in loyalty, to a man – not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who came before me seemed very ignorant; not to the ideals of this country; and not to democratic principles. It’s blind loyalty to someone who, by the way, remains free to this day,” said Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
Chutkan argued that his statements in the hearing related to January 6, 2021, the mobsters were not disqualified.AP
The defense team also referred to a statement made by the Jamaican-born judge in December 2021, during the trial for Robert Palmer, who attacked a police officer at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, arguing that it referred to Trump.
“And it’s true, Mr. Palmer — you’ve made a very good point, a point that’s been made before — that the people who urged you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight back were not prosecuted,” Chutkan said. .
The lawmaker insisted Wednesday that he was not referring to Trump in Priola’s case, and that he was not endorsing the 2024 Republican president to face charges when he made that statement in Palmer’s case.
“[T]he pointedly refused to say who, if anyone, he thinks should still face charges,” Chutkan wrote. “It is the defense, not the court, that considers the Defendant to belong to that undefined group. Similarly, for the sentencing hearing in Priola, the defense sought to detect an ‘inevitable’ message in what the court did not say: that “President Trump is free, but shouldn’t.”
“The court did state that the former President was free at the time of Priola’s sentencing – an undisputed fact on which Priola relied in his mitigation argument – but it did not go further,” argued Chutkan.
Trump has accused Chutkan of being “grossly dishonest” and “unfair.” Getty Images
“It’s worth noting that the court never took the position that the defense asserted: that former ‘President Trump should be impeached and imprisoned,'” he continued. “And the defense did not cite any instance of the court ever uttering those words or anything similar. “
Chutkan has sentenced dozens of individuals convicted of charges related to the Capitol riots, and his sentences are among the most severe ever handed down.
Trump has previously derided Chutkan as “HIGHLY BIASED & UNFAIR.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump ally, announced last month that he would introduce a resolution to censure, censure and investigate the judge, accusing him of engaging in “partisan commentary” on and off the bench that “calls into question his qualifications as a judge. “
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has argued that there is no legal basis to remove Chutkan from the case.
Chutkan has set a trial date of March 4, 2024, in the Trump case. The former president faces four criminal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings and conspiracy against rights.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
