The Federalist By: Tristan Justice
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s preelection report in former President Donald Trump’s D.C. criminal case related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith’s 165-page report was published Wednesday, just over one month before Election Day, as a final Hail Mary to convince Americans of Trump’s guilt while voters turn in ballots.
“The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct,” Smith wrote. “Not so.”
The ensuing document outlines prosecutors’ case against the Republican presidential nominee, a case Chutkan’s court was unable to litigate before the election closes in November. Progress on the trial was delayed this summer when the Supreme Court ruled presidents enjoy broad immunity for official acts in office. While Chutkan repeatedly postponed the court’s initial trial date this year because of the Supreme Court’s decision to consider presidential immunity, the federal judge overseeing Trump’s Jan. 6 trial scoffed at the high court’s ruling earlier this month in court.
In her Wednesday order that allowed prosecutors to release the source-redacted report, the judge, who has a well-documented animus toward the former president and his supporters, accused Trump’s legal team of engaging in “bad-faith partisan bias.”
“These accusations, for which Defendant provides no support, continue a pattern of defense filings focusing on political rhetoric rather than addressing the legal issues at hand,” Chutkan wrote. “Not only is that focus unresponsive and unhelpful to the court, but it is also unbefitting of experienced defense counsel and undermining of the judicial proceedings in this case.”
Chutkan, however, was appointed to preside over the politically charged Jan. 6 case of the former president despite her reputation as “a tough punisher of Capitol rioters.” According to the Associated Press, Chutkan presided over more than three dozen cases of those charged with crimes related to the Capitol chaos on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Other judges typically have handed down sentences that are more lenient than those requested by prosecutors,” the AP reported. “Chutkan, however, has matched or exceeded prosecutors’ recommendations in 19 of her 38 sentences. In four of those cases, prosecutors weren’t seeking any jail time at all.”
Chutkan has since presided as a friendly judge for the prosecution, instating an unprecedented gag order amid a turbulent presidential campaign in addition to giving Smith permission to publish an anonymously sourced case against Trump with just over 30 days until the election…
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