September 27, 2023
The answer is no.
Judge Tonya Chutkan just ruled against former President Trump and said she will not recuse herself from his federal election interference criminal case.
I told you in this video, Trump’s lawyers argued that some of the things the judge said during the sentencing hearings of convicted January 6th rioters should disqualify her from Trump’s case because – they said it proved that she was biased against the former president.
The judge flatly denied that in her 20-page ruling — saying Trump’s lawyers completely misinterpret the law when it comes to sentencing guidelines. She says she is required to give reasons for why she was sentencing those defendants and used facts examined by the prosecution and defense during the trial to do so.
She said a reasonable person—aware of the statutory requirement that the court address the defendant’s arguments and state its reasons for its sentence—would understand that in making the statements contested here, the court was not issuing vague declarations about third parties’ potential guilt in a hypothetical future case; instead, it was fulfilling its duty to expressly evaluate the defendants’ arguments”
The former President can appeal this ruling, but the bar for the federal appeals court or even the Supreme Court to get involved in this kind of decision is very very high.
Read Judge Chutkan’s ruling here.
