Who is Tanya Chutkan, the judge overseeing Trump’s election trial?

WASHINGTON, (Reuters): US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge assigned to oversee the federal case against Donald Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, has previously ruled against the former president and condemned the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol by his supporters.

Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, said in an August 6 social media post that his legal team was seeking Chutkan’s recusal from the case and a venue change outside of Washington, DC.

The following are some facts about Chutkan’s background and rulings:

OBAMA APPOINTEE

Chutkan was nominated as a federal judge by President Barack Obama in 2013. She was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate the following year though she did face some Republican opposition in an earlier procedural vote.

She previously served as a public defender in Washington, DC representing indigent defendants in criminal cases.

Chutkan later joined the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, where she defended clients in white-collar cases and represented plaintiffs in antitrust class action lawsuits.

While at Boies Schiller, Chutkan represented the failed blood testing startup Theranos in a lawsuit against one of the company’s former law firms.

Theranos later became engulfed in scandal and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was convicted of fraud.

RULED AGAINST TRUMP

The criminal case will not be Chutkan’s first chance to rule on a matter involving Trump and the US Capitol riot.

Trump’s threatening post flagged by US prosecutors to judge

Chutkan rejected a lawsuit brought by Trump in 2021 seeking to block the U.S. House committee investigating the attack from obtaining White House records, citing the legal doctrine of executive privilege.

“Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president,” Chutkan wrote in her ruling, which was later upheld by the US Supreme Court.

OVERSAW JANUARY 6 CASES

Chutkan has overseen several cases involving people accused of participating in the attack on the US Capitol. She is among judges in DC federal court who have spurned some recommendations from prosecutors for lesser punishments.

“There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home,” Chutkan told one defendant in 2021, rejecting the government’s recommendation of home detention.

TRUMP’S ATTACKS

In a post on his Truth Social platform on August 6, Trump attacked Chutkan without using her name. He claimed without providing evidence that “there is no way I can get a fair trial” and announced his intention to have her removed from the case and a venue change.

JAMAICA BORN

Chutkan was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1962. She was the third Black woman to serve as a judge in the Washington, DC federal trial court when she was confirmed.

Chutkan graduated from George Washington University and later the University of Pennsylvania Law School.