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Judge Chutkan refuses to recuse herself in Trump's January 6 trial

In her ruling, she claims that she never "expressly" accused the former president of being guilty. She insists that recusal should not be used as a form of "judge shopping."

Mugshot de Donald Trump / Cárcel del condado de Fulton

Mugshot de Donald Trump / Cárcel del condado de Fulton

Published by
Israel Duro

District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan refused to recuse herself in Donald Trump's trial for the January 6 riots. In her ruling, Chutka declares that she never "expressly" accused the former president of being responsible for the events that occurred at the Capitol in 2021 and stressed that "in the wrong hands, a disqualification motion is a procedural weapon to harass opponents and delay proceedings" and it "could also be wrongfully deployed as a form of ‘judge shopping."

Memorandum No Recusal Judge Chutkan by Israel Duro on Scribd

Chutkan: Trump's lawyers concluded that she blamed him

According to the judge, she never explicitly blamed the former president. Instead, Trump's lawyers reached that conclusion on their own. Chutkan wrote in a 20-page document, "The court expressly declined to state who, if anyone, it thought should still face charges. It is the defense, not the court, who has assumed that the Defendant belongs in that undefined group."

A reasonable person — aware of the statutory requirement that the court address the defendant’s arguments and state its reasons for its sentence — would understand that in making the statements contested here, the court was not issuing vague declarations about third parties’ potential guilt in a hypothetical future case.

Trump's team disagrees with the decision and has not ruled out filing an appeal

Trump's team did not want to say whether the former president will appeal this decision, but they expressed their disagreement. "Disqualification is required whenever a reasonable person might conclude that the court is biased, such as is the situation here," they told The Guardian. A spokesperson told The Hill:

Fairness and impartiality are central tenets of our judicial system. Judges must not only be in fact, impartial, but must also appear to be unbiased. Based on her prior statements in other cases that she already holds an opinion regarding President Trump, his legal team believes that Judge Chutkan should have recuse [sic] herself.
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