(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Earlier this week, attorneys for Donald Trump filed a motion seeking the recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan — she’s the judge in the federal elections case (there are so many Trump criminal cases, so it’s easy to get confused). The motion was filed significantly later than you’d expect, and focused on Chutkan presiding over January 6th rioter cases.
Trump’s lawyers reportedly focused on comments Judge Chutkan made during sentencing:
The first example highlighted by the Trump team comes from an October 2022 sentencing hearing, in which Chutkan said that “the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man – not to the Constitution. … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
And in a December 2021 sentencing hearing, Chutkan told another Capitol riot defendant that “the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.”
She added: “The issue of who has or has not been charged is not before me. I don’t have any influence on that. I have my opinions, but they are not relevant.”
But as law professor and former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, he sees the move as a lot of bluster, and not much substance.
“I don’t think that Donald Trump’s lawyers actually think they’re going to win,” he said. “When I read this motion, I thought it was for the MAGA base.”
Weissmann also noted the types of comments Judge Chutkan made during sentencing are anticipated by the federal guidelines:
“You have to describe for the particular defendant why you are sentencing the person to a particular time, why you are accepting arguments, and why you are rejecting arguments,” he said. “That can involve other people ― people who are charged, and people who are not charged.”
Weissmann also took the Trump legal team to task for how late the recusal motion was made — “This is the kind of filing that you just don’t make ― and you don’t make it at this time,” he said.
You can check out Weissmann’s full appearance below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
