Former US President Donald Trump on Monday formally requested the removal of Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is set to preside over his federal trial over her attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, questioning her impartiality.
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The judge has already set the start of this trial for March 4, to the great dismay of the Republican primary favorite’s lawyers, who demanded that it be held in April 2026, long after the November 2024 presidential election.
Donald Trump condemned Judge Chutkan’s decision and accused her of “hating” him on his Truth Social network.
Judge Tanya Chutkan AFP
Even before his August 3 appearance to plead not guilty, he had claimed his only mistake was “contesting a rigged election” and had called him an “unfair judge,” apparently in reference to Judge Chutkan.
To support their appeal, his lawyers cite statements made by the judge during the sentencing hearings of participants in the attack on the Capitol, the seat of Congress, on January 6, 2021.
That day, hundreds of red-hot Donald Trump supporters violated this shrine to American democracy to prevent the certification of his opponent Joe Biden’s victory.
“Judge Chutkan has suggested, in connection with other cases, that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” her motion states.
In October 2022, when sentencing a participant in the storming of the Capitol to a 15-month prison sentence, she found that the participants had “acted out of blind loyalty to a person who, by the way, is still free today.”
“Your public statements inevitably prejudice the proceedings, regardless of the outcome,” argue Donald Trump’s lawyers, arguing that Judge Chutkan should therefore recuse herself and ask the clerk to assign this case to another judge at random.
Most legal experts believe the application is almost doomed to failure because it would require the judge to withdraw of her own free will.
As he campaigns to retake the White House, Donald Trump is blaming his legal woes on President Biden’s Democratic administration, which he could find in 2024 on the way to avenging the 2020 election.