Trump ‘Innuendo’ Not Enough to Oust Election Judge, US Says (2)

The US Justice Department is opposing Donald Trump’s effort to disqualify the Washington federal judge handling the 2020 election obstruction criminal case against him, arguing the request has “no valid basis” and accusing the former president of cherry-picking the judge’s words.

Trump’s defense lawyers have asked US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to step aside, citing what they said were her “negative” comments about him. Special Counsel John “Jack” Smith’s office countered in filing late Thursday, calling the request baseless. Chutkan’s comments — made during hearings in other cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol — “evidenced no improper bias or prejudgment of the current case,” prosecutors wrote.

Trump “has relied on suggestion and innuendo to insinuate something sinister in the court simply doing its job,” prosecutors said.

A spokesperson for Trump didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Read More: Trump Seeks Judge’s Recusal in Federal 2020 Election Case

Judges are given wide latitude to decide when to recuse, and it’s usually rare for lawyers and litigants to demand it. However, Trump has frequently complained that judges involved in his many legal cases aren’t fair and has asked them to step aside. Such motions are hard to win when there isn’t a financial or personal relationship at issue for a judge.

Earlier on Thursday, a civil fraud trial against Trump in New York was put on hold temporarily by a state appeals judge so the former president could press a last-ditch argument that the lower court judge mishandled the proceedings. The $250 million suit brought by the state attorney general is scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 2. A court spokesperson confirmed the filing, which was first reported by the Daily Beast, and said the appeals court is expected to rule by the end of September.

In the Washington criminal case, Trump’s in-court claim that Chutkan’s statements risk creating the appearance of prejudice echo his more direct online posts accusing her of being “highly partisan” and “very biased & unfair.”

Trump has attacked the integrity of the US judicial system in the face of courtroom losses before, during, and after his time as president. Earlier this year he lost a bid to disqualify a New York state court judge presiding over another one of the four criminal cases he faces.

Chutkan, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, has said in earlier hearings that she would ensure Trump’s right to a fair trial. She ruled against Trump in 2021 when he tried to block a congressional committee investigating the 2020 election from getting his White House records, but that wasn’t part of his request to disqualify her.

Instead, his lawyers quoted comments she made in earlier criminal cases related to the Jan. 6 attack noting that Trump and other prominent Republicans who tried to overturn the 2020 results hadn’t been charged so far.

Smith’s team argued in their response that Trump’s lawyers had taken Chutkan’s words “out of context” and misstated the legal standard for when a judge would be required to recuse.

“Because the defendant’s motion fails to establish any bias by the court, much less the deep-seated antagonism required for recusal, the court has a duty to continue to oversee this proceeding,” prosecutors wrote.

Trump has three days to respond. If Chutkan recuses, the court would randomly assign the case to another judge on the Washington federal bench. Trump and his lawyers have said they might try to get the trial moved out of the nation’s capital given the Democratic-leaning voter base, but they haven’t asked for that in court yet.

The case is US v. Trump, 1:23-cr-00257, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

(Updated with new Trump motion against a New York judge, information from the filing.)

--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Joe Schneider, Steve Stroth

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