A plea by former US President Donald Trump was rejected Wednesday by Judge Tanya Chutkan asking her to recuse herself from overseeing the case of the Republican presidential forerunner concerning blocking the election results of 2020 and deliberations to remain in the Oval Office after suffering a defeat from Democrat Joe Biden.
“Recusal motions served a vital purpose, justice also demands that judges not recuse without cause,” wrote Judge Tanya Chutkan Wednesday.
She further stated pointing to a prior court decision, that recusal motions can be “a procedural weapon to harass opponents and delay proceedings.”
“Motions for recusal could also be wrongfully deployed as a form of ‘judge shopping,'” Chutkan wrote.
Weeks earlier, the four-time criminally indicted former president filed a motion through his lawyers maintaining that District Judge Tanya Chutkan should be removed from his case as her past statements show clear bias against the Republican forerunner.
“The defence interprets the court’s verbal reiteration of Palmer and Priola’s arguments about their relative culpability as ‘suggest[ing]’ a secret core view about Defendant’s criminality….That inferential leap is not reasonable in light of the relevant facts, record, and law,” the judge wrote.
“The court was legally bound to not only privately consider those arguments, but also to publicly assess them.”
Chutkan also noted she had never made any comments on Trump’s culpability — noting it was his own attorneys who leaped to that conclusion.
Judge Chutkan is to preside over the case regarding Trump’s involvement in subverting 2020 election results and the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riots.
Trump had maintained in his filings that US District Judge Chutkan should step aside because of “past statements she has made about [Donald Trump] that demonstrate bias.”
Also Read: Organizers cancel US presidential debate on October 15
