Lawsuit against ex-US President
She’s hearing the most serious lawsuit against Donald Trump – who is Judge Tanya Chutkan?
Tanya Chutkan has been a federal judge in Washington DC for nine years.
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Donald Trump faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty by a federal court in Washington on January 6, 2021. His assigned judge, Tanya Chutkan, has been adamant in all cases involving the storming of the Capitol.
- Teenage girl, illegally immigrated, detained, pregnant: does such a woman have the right to an abortion? Yes, judged Tanya Chutkan in 2018.
- When neo-Nazi Daniel Lewis Lee was due to be executed on December 9, 2019, Tanya Chutkan stayed the execution. Reason: The use of the death drug pentobarbital violates federal law.
- In April 2019, Tanya Chutkan sentenced a Russian student to 18 months in prison for espionage. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had previously publicly defended his compatriot.
- Robert P. threw fire extinguishers at police officers during the Capitol storm on January 6, 2021. A few months later, Tanya Chutkan sentenced him to more than five years in prison.
Capitol rioters don’t stand a chance
The latest is just one of 38 total judgments against Capitol Rioters by the Federal Court Judge in Washington DC. fell – not a single trial ended well for the accused, all are in custody. The day thousands got pumped up Trump supporters had stormed the heart of US democracy two weeks before taking power was one of the blackest in the country’s history. Chutkan has hitherto been particularly adamant about all related cases.
This is not good news for Donald Trump. Because Tanya Chutkan, 61, a native of Jamaica, is the one who will negotiate the most serious allegations against the ex-US President so far: among other things, conspiracy against the United States. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
This is the second time Trump and his legal team have dealt with her on this matter. In the fall of 2021, she had to decide whether the ex-head of state had to hand over all papers and documents that could have anything to do with January 6, 2021 to the investigators. The district judge had a clear opinion on this. Yes. Her 39-page statement culminated in the sentence: “Presidents are not kings.”
Donald Trump speaks of “witch hunt”
It is rare for former heads of state to be impeached, but it is unique in the United States. And Donald Trump not only has to answer before Tanya Chutkan, but also before two other courts: in New York for hush money payments to a porn actress and in Florida for stealing secret documents. Another lawsuit alleging election rigging in the state of Georgia is likely. The multiple defendant washes his hands in innocence. For him, these legal difficulties have nothing to do with his own fault, but with a “witch hunt” with the aim of getting rid of him politically.
Capitol Storm on January 6, 2021
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A lot of Americans see it that way too. What has to do with the fact that the judiciary in the USA, like in any other constitutional state, acts independently, but is politically occupied. Thus the ministries of justice are at the same time the supreme public prosecutor’s offices; the ministers appointed by the heads of government are also chief prosecutors. The Democrat Merrick Garland is currently the US Attorney General, who is also responsible for the two most important federal investigations against the Republican ex-president.
The influence of politics goes even further. Judges at higher instances, such as the federal courts, are appointed by the respective US President – mostly with similar political orientations as the man in the White House.
A judge appointed by him sits in Florida
This could be advantageous for Trump’s document process in Florida. Because the judge responsible there, Aileen Cannon, is one of his appointments and has already shown something like leniency towards him. After the FBI confiscated the missing government documents from Trump’s estate a good year ago, she forbade the investigating Department of Justice to also evaluate them. Instead, at the request of Trump’s team, she appointed an independent assessor. However, their decision was later overturned by two higher instances – in which judges appointed by Trump also sit.
The presidential candidate cannot therefore always rely on “his” judges ruling in his interest. In addition, chance also decides which judge gets which cases. Aileen Cannon was assigned to the document case by a computer, with five judges to choose from. Tanya Chutkan came across the United States v. Donald J. Trump case in exactly the same way. She was made a federal judge by Democrat Barack Obama in 2014.
Trump could swap jury for Chutkan
In the end, as in Florida, it is not necessarily the respective judge who decides on guilt or innocence, but a jury. Theoretically, Trump even has the option of “swapping” the jury for a decision by Judge Chutkan – which he is unlikely to do. Meanwhile, his followers are making mood against the lawyer. What bothers them most is that their immigration to the United States was allegedly undocumented. The fact that she’s more of the type of law-and-order judge that conservatives otherwise appreciate doesn’t seem to interest her this time.
Sources: DPA, AFP, CNN“New York Times“, France24, NZZ“Business Insider“