Who is Tanya Chutkan? The tough judge who could put Donald Trump in prison if he’s convicted
The judge who has been assigned to the case against Donald Trump over his bid to overturn the 2020 US election has come across proceedings related to the former president before.
US district court judge Tanya Chutkan has jailed defendants who were charged in relation to the 6 January, 2021 riots at the Capitol, with analysis showing she consistently handed out the toughest sentences of any judge presiding in these types of cases.
She has sentenced at least 38 people convicted in relation to the Capitol riots, all of them received prison terms ranging from 10 days to more than five years. She has often handed down prison sentences in the riot cases that are harsher than those Justice Department prosecutors have recommended.
She also had a virtual run-in with Mr Trump in November 2021, after rejecting his attempt to block the National Archives from releasing documents concerning the Capitol riots to a committee investigating the insurrection. He had tried to argue that he can assert executive privilege, which gives a president the right to keep internal communications secret.
“Presidents are not kings, and the plaintiff is not president,” she said in her ruling.
It is unclear when Judge Chutkan will meet face-to-face with Mr Trump, who is expected to appear before magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyayain in Washington, DC on Thursday where he is likely to be arraigned. Judge Chutkan will, however, preside over his trial, which the government wants to hold in 90 days.
She appears to be aware of the gravity of the case that is likely to change her life. In an unrelated matter on Wednesday at the Washington, DC federal court, she briefly chatted with a lawyer who asked how she was feeling after being assigned to Mr Trump’s case.
“Good… I think,” she said, according to a report by Politico.
When asked if she had had a good night’s sleep, she jokingly replied: “No.”
After she was urged to “be safe” she responded: “I’m trying.” As she spoke with lawyers on potential dates for future hearings, she said she might be out of town in late August.
“Which increasingly seems like a good idea,” she added with a smile.
A former assistant public defender who was nominated to the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 2013 by Barack Obama, Judge Chutkan has made it clear that she considered the Capitol attack to be “a very real danger” to democracy.
She has expressed her belief that prison can be a powerful deterrent against the threat of another insurrection.
“Every day we’re hearing about reports of anti-democratic factions of people plotting violence, the potential threat of violence, in 2024,” she said, before handing a five-year prison term to a Florida man who attacked police officers.
“It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment.”
