Judge in Trump Election Case Has Been Tough on Jan. 6 Rioters
Tanya Chutkan has sometimes handed down sentences tougher than the ones sought by prosecutors Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former public defender, was appointed to the federal bench in 2014. Photo: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts/Associated Press By Jan Wolfe and Jess Bravin Aug. 2, 2023 2:43 pm ET U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge assigned to former President Donald Trump’s latest criminal case, has been critical of the events on Jan. 6, 2021, and has imposed lengthy sentences on Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day. At the same time, Chutkan, a former public defender, has shown a scrupulous concern for the rights of criminal defendants. During the final years of the Tru
Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former public defender, was appointed to the federal bench in 2014.
Photo: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts/Associated Press
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge assigned to former President Donald Trump’s latest criminal case, has been critical of the events on Jan. 6, 2021, and has imposed lengthy sentences on Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day.
At the same time, Chutkan, a former public defender, has shown a scrupulous concern for the rights of criminal defendants. During the final years of the Trump administration, she repeatedly frustrated Justice Department efforts to accelerate the execution of federal inmates. The Supreme Court reinstated the executions she had blocked.
Chutkan would oversee a trial in the case, which she hasn’t yet scheduled. Trump will make his initial appearance in the case on Thursday afternoon. That hearing is expected to be overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya.
The indictment unsealed on Tuesday, which accuses Trump of a criminal scheme to stay in power after his November 2020 election defeat, has been randomly assigned to Chutkan, a 2014 Obama appointee who was confirmed by the Senate on a 95-0 vote.
A federal grand jury in Washington has indicted former President Donald Trump in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Trump has denied wrongdoing and accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons. Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
“The judge they drew is obviously not a fan of what happened on Jan. 6,” said Douglas Berman, a professor of criminal law at the Ohio State University. “She’s not inclined to give people involved the benefit of the doubt.”
Chutkan attended George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After graduating from law school, she worked for more than a decade in the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia, representing individuals accused of murder and sex crimes.
From 2002 until her appointment to the federal bench in 2014, Chutkan practiced at Boies Schiller & Flexner, the law firm founded by liberal trial lawyer David Boies. In 2012, Chutkan volunteered with Lawyers for Obama, participating in event planning phone calls, according to a questionnaire she filled out as part of her judicial nomination.
In November 2021, Chutkan issued a 39-page decision that allowed the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol to access telephone records, visitor logs and other White House documents that Trump wanted blocked.
Trump had sued the congressional committee and, in his complaint, accused the committee of “sending an illegal, unfounded, and overbroad records request” in order to “harass” him and his allies.
Chutkan rejected Trump’s arguments. “While broad, these requests, and each of the other requests made by the Committee, do not exceed the Committee’s legislative powers,” she wrote in her decision.
In a memorable line from that ruling, Chutkan wrote: “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”
Chutkan has also drawn attention for imposing tough sentences on Jan. 6 rioters.
In October 2021, Chutkan handed down a 45-day jail sentence for a Texas man who prosecutors said should be given home confinement. That court hearing marked the first time that one of the judges overseeing the hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions imposed a sentence that was harsher than what the government asked for.
“There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home,” the judge said to defendant Matthew Mazzocco at his sentencing hearing.
“The country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in the history of this country before,” the judge said, adding: “That mob was trying to overthrow the government.”
Mazzocco had pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol.
That same week, Chutkan sentenced two cousins who breached the Capitol and took selfies while doing so to 45 days in jail. The Justice Department had asked Chutkan to impose 30-day sentences on them.
A day earlier, Chutkan sentenced a 52-year-old woman from Indiana to two weeks of incarceration. Prosecutors had recommended a probationary sentence for the woman, citing her early acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with law enforcement.
“She has regularly handed down sentences in line with or above what prosecutors recommend, making numerous statements concerning the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol and the future threat of political violence driven by antidemocratic sentiments,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
Write to Jan Wolfe at [email protected] and Jess Bravin at [email protected]
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