Who is Tanya Chutkan? Judge to take over Donald Trump's Jan. 6 case

Donald Trump added another indictment to his judicial collection. The investigation led by Jack Smith resulted in four new charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; and conspiracy against citizens' rights. Tanya S. Chutkan will be the judge in the case, and she has already been accused of having a "reputation for being far left."

The judge was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2014 by a vote of 95-0. One of the senators who voted for her was Ted Cruz (R-TX), who anticipated in his podcast that she will be "extremely hostile" against Trump.

As the senator explained in Verdict, the magistrate has a very tough track record in cases involving January 6, 2021, handing down stronger sentences than those recommended by prosecutors. "So in terms of the judge, we can anticipate a judge who is going to be relentlessly hostile to Donald Trump, who is going to bend over backwards for the Biden [Department of Justice] and who is going to make ruling after ruling after ruling against Trump," he said.

"They are not Donald Trump supporters. The likelihood that a D.C. jury will vote to convict Donald Trump is exceptionally high, and the facts don't matter. Laws do not matter. They hate him. That's a big part of the reason why the Biden DOJ wants to bring this case in D.C., which means that with a far-left judge and a far-left jury, there is a very real possibility that Donald Trump ends up being convicted," the Republican added.

Chutkan was born on July 5, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica, and later moved to the United States, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University in 1983. She also attended the University of Pennsylvania, precisely the law school and graduated in 1987 with a doctorate in jurisprudence.

She spent many years in the private sector, specializing in civil rights and antitrust cases. The Senate confirmed her as a U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia and has already had one contact with Trump from the bench.

As it turns out, the two had a history in November 2021, when the judge denied the former president's request that records not be released to the House Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.