It’s been nearly a week since Donald Trump was indicted for his post-election wrongdoing, and since then, the former president has been quite busy. For example, the Republican has been attacking prosecutors. And attacking potential witnesses. And attacking the city where the trial is scheduled to be held.
With this in mind perhaps it’s not too surprising that Trump is going after the judge assigned to his case, too. Reuters reported:
Donald Trump on Sunday targeted the federal judge assigned to the case charging him with seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, as his lawyer argued that actions Trump took after his loss were just “asks.” Trump, in a social media post,” said: “THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ‘ASSIGNED,’” adding that he planned to seek U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s recusal as well as a change of venue outside of Washington.
It’s worth emphasizing that while Trump wrote to his social media platform that he and his attorneys “WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS,” there’s no reason to assume that such a court filing will actually happen. The former president routinely just says stuff, without regard for reality, and while it’s possible Team Trump will seek Chutkan’s recusal, it’s equally possible we’ll never hear another word about this again.
What’s more, even if the Republican follows through on his vow, there’s no reason to assume it would succeed. The standards for a defendant demanding a new judge are high, and it’s unlikely Team Trump would successfully make such a case.
I’d be remiss if I failed to note that the former president, as part of his all-caps tirade, also complained about “the judge ‘assigned’” to this case. I have no idea why he put quotes around “assigned,” but if Trump is under the impression that there was some kind of behind-the-scenes corruption to ensure that Chutkan received the case, there is literally no evidence of such a thing.
But perhaps most important is the fact that while Trump is convinced that he can’t get a fair trial in Chutkan’s courtroom, he pointed to ... nothing in particular. He said he'd make the case on "very powerful grounds," though no one seems to have any idea what those grounds might be.
The former president published a follow-up item this morning, saying that Chutkan "must be recused," again failing to explain why.
Indeed, this has come up quite a bit lately among Republicans. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News, for example, that the judge “hates Trump,” but he didn’t say how exactly he arrived at this conclusion. Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas accused Chutkan of being a “far-left” jurist, though he also didn’t explain why he made such a claim.
In fact, both Graham and Cruz voted to confirm Chutkan — who was approved to the federal bench nearly a decade ago with literally zero “no” votes.
As best as I can tell, the basis for the pushback against the judge is that she’s handed down tough sentences against convicted Jan. 6 rioters, which is true. But if the GOP case is effectively, “Chutkan should recuse because she’s too tough on criminals,” I have a hunch this won’t work out well for Trump’s attorneys.