Former US President Donald Trump is seeking to disqualify the federal judge in Washington leading the trial over Trump’s attempts to manipulate the results of the 2020 election. However, the chance of success is slim: it is the judge himself who will rule on this request.
His lawyers filed a formal motion (“Motion”) to that effect on Monday. The argument they are presenting is that Judge Tanya Chutkan had previously made negative comments about the former president and his role in the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. According to them, she would therefore not be impartial.
Trump previously described Chutkan, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, as “biased and dishonest” on his “Social Truth” platform. The request to disqualify her, filed Monday, escalates the matter. Trump’s trial is usually scheduled to begin on March 4 of next year, that is, before the presidential elections in November 2024.
“Presidents are not kings”
In the United States, it is difficult for litigants to successfully argue that an already appointed judge is not qualified to preside over a trial. Moreover, it is Chutkan himself who initially rules on Trump’s lawyers’ request. This is what the American newspaper “New York Times” wrote. In previous hearings, the federal judge said she would ensure that Trump gets the same rights as other defendants.
Judge Chutkan previously ruled against Trump in 2021 in a civil case he filed in an attempt to protect certain documents about his time in the White House from the US House of Representatives committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not a president,” Chutkan wrote in that ruling.
look. First hearing in Trump fraud case: What does he risk?
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