Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a South Dakota Republican party rally in Rapid City, South Dakota, US on September 8, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump asked Judge on Monday asked Chutkan to recuse himself from criminal charges for trying to reverse his defeat in the 2020 national election, citing “disqualifying” statements he made while sentencing two people for their roles on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Trump’s lawyers said Chutkan’s statements would “impair” his right to a fair trial in the US District Court in Washington, DC, arguing that he had convicted him.
“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” the lawyers wrote in their motion asking the judge to recuse himself.
“Such statements, made before the commencement of this case and without due process, are inherently disqualifying,” they wrote.
Chutkan will decide whether to recuse himself from the case, which is being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
The judge on Thursday ordered Smith’s office to file any opposition they have to the motion to dismiss on Thursday.
Last month, the judge set Trump’s trial to begin on March 4, 2024, prompting Trump to blast him in a social media post as a “biased, Trump Hating Judge.”
If Chutkan leaves the case, it could be randomly assigned to another judge in the same court.
Trump last month lost a similar recusal motion in a New York state criminal case in which he was charged with falsifying business records related to a 2016 cash payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan ruled that he could be “fair and impartial” to Trump despite the former president’s claims that the judge had conflicts of interest in the case.
Trump previously criticized Chutkan for some of the same statements his lawyers cited in their recusal motion.
On his Truth Social site last month, he said Chutkan “obviously wants me behind bars,” pointing to his remarks from an October sentencing hearing for Christine Priola.
Priola is one of hundreds of people facing criminal charges charge related to the riot by a mob of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol in Jan. 6, 2021, when a joint session of Congress meets to confirm the election of President Joe Biden.
During Priola’s sentencing, Chutkan said, “This is nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legal, lawful, peacefully elected government of individuals who are angry that they lost their people.”
“And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution,” she said. “It’s a blind loyalty to a man who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
Trump’s lawyers referred to those statements in Monday’s filing, arguing that “the public meaning of this statement is inescapable — President Trump is free, but he shouldn’t be.”
“As an apparent presumption of guilt, these comments disqualify from standing alone,” the lawyers wrote.
They also cited comments Chutkan made to defendant Robert Palmer on January 6 when he sentenced him in 2021.
“Mr. Palmer – you make a very good point, one that has been made before – that the people who encouraged you and urged you and rallied you to go and act and fight were not charged,” Chutkan said. .
The Republican has been charged separately in state court in Atlanta with conspiracy and other crimes related to his attempt to overturn Biden’s victory over him in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Trump has also been charged in federal court in Florida with crimes related to his retention of classified government records after he left the White House.
