Former President Donald Trump has made it clear that he and his legal team will seek the recusal of the judge who is currently scheduled to preside over the latest indictment that has been brought against him.
Trump did so via Truth Social on Sunday.
This regards the case that special counsel Jack Smith brought against Trump in relation to the events that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith - the lawyer whom the Biden administration has chosen to weaponize the law against President Joe Biden's top political rival - has charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud, obstruction, and conspiracy of rights. Trump has already pled not guilty to the charges.
The judge who has been assigned this case is Judge Tanya Chutkan. She is an appointee of former President Barack Obama. But, this is only part of the problem.
The bigger problem is that Chutkan has proven herself, repeatedly, to have an anti-Trump bias.
Chutkan has been one of the D.C. judges who has overseen the cases that the federal government has brought against those who participated in the events of Jan. 6, 2021. And, in this capacity, Chutkan has repeatedly doled out lengthy sentences - sentences that are longer than the sentences that were recommended by the prosecutors, who were already seeking long sentences.
This is worth repeating: Chutkan has repeatedly given Jan. 6 defendants longer sentences than the sentence requested by prosecutors.
Even if you are not familiar with the U.S. legal system, you can probably guess that this sort of thing does not happen often. And yet, Chutckan has done it at least nine times, betraying her anti-Trump, anti-Republican bias.
On Sunday, on Truth Social, Trump indicated that, given her background, he will seek Chutkan's recusal.
The former president, in all capital letters, wrote:
There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge "assigned" to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she! We will be immediately asking for recusal of this judge on very powerful grounds, and likewise for venue change, out of D.C.
What Trump is referring to at the end is the fact that D.C. is overwhelmingly Democratic. Biden received over 90% of the vote in the last election, meaning that it is not really going to be possible to find a fair jury, as required by the Constitution.
Accordingly, Trump is going to ask that the case be moved to somewhere where it will be possible to get a jury of his peers.
So, we now know Trump's next moves in the Jan. 6 case. We'll have to see whether he is successful on these motions. They certainly would seem to have merit - but it has to be remembered that this is taking place in D.C.
