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Post by Webster on Aug 17, 2023 14:44:23 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion case, warned the former president last week to refrain from making statements that could intimidate witnesses or prejudice potential jurors. Just a day before Abigail Jo Shry allegedly left a voicemail message threatening to kill Chutkan, Trump had posted on his social media platform, Truth Social: writing “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” Trump has specifically posted about Chutkan since she was randomly assigned to oversee his 2020 election case. On Monday, the former president said she “obviously wants me behind bars” and described her as “very biased and unfair”. Chutkan has reportedly been assigned extra security by the US marshals service in recent weeks, and CNN reported observing more security detailed to the judge around the Washington DC federal courthouse.
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Post by Webster on Aug 18, 2023 12:46:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Lawyers for former president Donald Trump asked the judge presiding over his federal 2020 election interference case to schedule his trial for April 2026 – more than two and a half years from now. In a 16-page filing on Thursday, the lawyers argued that putting Trump on trial this coming January – as federal prosecutors have requested – would mark a “rush to trial” that would violate his constitutional rights and be “flatly impossible” given the extraordinary volume of discovery evidence they will have to sort through. Trump’s lawyers wrote: The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial.Special counsel Jack Smith is expected to oppose the April 2026 start date, which would put the trial long after the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination. US district court judge Tanya Chutkan has said she wants to set a trial date at her next scheduled hearing on 28 August.
Lawyers for Donald Trump asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference trial to push back the start date to April 2026, nearly 18 months after the next presidential election. The lawyers filed the request to US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, after Trump was indicted earlier this month on charges that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructed an official proceeding and engaged in a conspiracy against rights. Federal prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith had proposed to schedule the trial for the start of January 2024, saying there was a significant public interest in expediting the prosecution. “A January 2 trial date would vindicate the public’s strong interest in a speedy trial,” prosecutors wrote. -- It is difficult to imagine a public interest stronger than the one in this case in which the defendant – the former president of the United States – is charged with three criminal conspiracies.In their court filing on Thursday, Trump’s attorneys argued a years-long delay was necessary due to the “massive” amount of information they will have to review and because of scheduling conflicts with the other criminal cases Trump is facing. -- If we were to print and stack 11.5 million pages of documents, with no gap between pages, at 200 pages per inch, the result would be a tower of paper stretching nearly 5,000 feet into the sky. That is taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on top of itself eight times, with nearly a million pages to spare.
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Post by Webster on Aug 18, 2023 17:39:03 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Matt Gaetz introduces resolution to censure judge in Trump's January 6 caseThe Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to censure the judge overseeing the federal trial into Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a statement, Gaetz accused US district judge Tanya Chutkan of “showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench”. “It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter. -- Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a complete disregard for her duty of impartiality and the rule of law.
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Post by Webster on Aug 18, 2023 17:47:45 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Kenneth Chesebro, one of the alleged legal architects of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, was in the crowd outside the US Capitol on January 6 2021 and spent part of that day closely following the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, according to a CNN report. Photographs and videos suggest Chesebro recording Jones with his phone as the far-right broadcast agitator ascended to the restricted area of the Capitol grounds where pro-Trump activists eventually broke in. There is no indication Chesebro entered the Capitol building or was violent, but the photographs and videos place him outside the building at the same time as his alleged plot to keep Trump in office unraveled inside it. Jared Holt, a disinformation and extremism expert, told CNN: Even if Chesebro is simply a diehard Infowars fan, I think that would further illustrate how thin the line was between the serious, credentialed people who sought to undermine election results and the extremist figures who sought to unleash havoc was in that period, to the extent it meaningfully existed at all.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:34:05 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge to decide date for Trump's January 6 trial in day of high-stakes court hearingsDonald Trump is expected to have a big day today in not one, but two courtrooms, where judges will consider matters that could have a great impact both on the criminal trials he is facing, and on the broader 2024 campaign. At 10 am eastern time in Washington DC, federal judge Tanya Chutkan will consider when to hold his trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team wants it to begin in January, while Trump’s attorneys have proposed holding off until 2026. If prosecutors get their way, it’ll throw yet another wrench into his plans to spend next year campaigning for the White House. At the same time in Atlanta, Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff during his final months in office, will be in federal court, arguing that his trial on charges of trying to disrupt Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia three years ago should be held there, and not in its current state court venue. If Meadows prevails, it could aid his defense against the charges brought by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, and potentially apply to Trump and the 17 other co-defendants in the case. We’ll be following both of these hearings as they happen.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:40:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump's attorney arrive for hearing on January 6 trial dateDonald Trump’s lawyers have arrived at federal court in Washington DC for the hearing that will determine when his trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection will be held. The former president is not expected to attend. Special prosecutor Jack Smith’s team has asked that the trial begin in January, while Trump’s attorneys have proposed starting in 2026. Federal judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of Barack Obama, is presiding over the hearing. Trump 'will have to make the trial date work' — federal judgeFederal judge Tanya Chutkan is giving opening remarks in the hearing to determine Donald Trump’s trial date in the January 6 case. She said she planned to question both the former president’s attorneys and prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team, and reiterated that Trump will have to yield to the criminal process – potentially bad new for his hopes to forestall the trial till after the 2024 election. “Setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant’s personal and professional obligations. Mr Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Chutkan said.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:42:04 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Federal judge Tanya Chutkan continues her opening remarks by stressing how the Speedy Trial Act exists to also benefit the public interest, and not just the defendant. She adds that “counsel is not entitled to unlimited preparation time”.
Judge Tanya Chutkan signals she disagrees with arguments made by Donald Trump’s attorneys that, based on the “median time” of similar cases, his trial should begin in 2026. At the hearing, Chutkan said those numbers were misleading because they included the time from commencement to sentencing, not to trial. The judge also noted that she is overseeing one of the cases cited by Trump’s lawyers in their proposed timeframe, and the delays in that matter were because of Covid-19 and a superseding indictment – none of which applied to the former president.
Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro just made an impassioned argument for delaying his trial to 2026, arguing his legal team needs years to investigate the evidence. Judge Tanya Chutkan did not seem to buy it. “You are not going to get two more years. This case is not going to trial in 2026,” she said.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:43:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) After about an hour and 15 minutes of arguments, judge Tanya Chutkan has called a recess in the hearing that will determine the date of Donald Trump’s trial in the federal January 6 case. She is expected to rule on the trial date when the hearing resumes.
Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has just set Donald Trump’s trial date on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election for 4 March of next year.
In selecting 4 March as the date for Donald Trump’s trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election, Tanya Chutkan rejected the former president’s request for a trial beginning in 2026, and gave prosecutors almost exactly what they wanted. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had proposed starting in January, and the date Chutkan chose was only a few weeks off from that.
Donald Trump’s federal trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election will start just before one of the biggest days in the Republican nominating process. The trial’s opening coincides with North Dakota’s Republican caucus, but the real event will take place the next day, which is known as Super Tuesday for the sheer number of states that vote. On 5 March, Republicans in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia will vote in primaries. With his trial kicking off the day before, the stage is set for Trump to once again be at the front of voters’ minds when they head to the polls – for better or worse.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:44:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell with the full rundown of federal judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to set a 4 March trial date for Donald Trump’s election subversion trial: Donald Trump’s criminal trial for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results will take place in 4 March 2024, the federal judge presiding over the case in Washington ruled on Monday, marking a sharp repudiation of the former president who had sought to delay the case for years.
The schedule set by US district court judge Tanya Chutkan means Trump’s first trial defending himself against prosecutors and the special counsel Jack Smith will be the election subversion case – and it will come during the height of the 2024 Republican primary season.
Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges filed in federal district court in Washington that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructed an official proceeding and engaged in a conspiracy against rights.
The former president had asked ahead of the hearing for the trial to take place in April 2026, citing the supposed “median time” of 29.2 months that it took to convict defendants in cases that involved the charge of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
But prosecutors had argued in response that using the median time as a benchmark was misleading because it included the time it takes for jury selection, trial, verdict and several months of sentencing deliberation, rather than just the duration of pre-trial proceedings.
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Post by Webster on Sept 6, 2023 13:16:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Investigators question ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell's fundraising to prove 2020 election conspiracy theoriesAccording to CNN, investigators from special counsel Jack Smith’s office are asking witnesses about fundraising done by Donald Trump’s former lawyer Sidney Powell, and whether it was used to fund efforts to breach voting systems in four swing states: According to sources, witnesses interviewed by Smith’s prosecutors in recent weeks were asked about Powell’s role in the hunt for evidence of voter fraud after the 2020 election, including how her nonprofit group, Defending the Republic, provided money to fund those efforts.
Powell promoted Defending the Republic as a non-profit focused on funding post-election legal challenges by Trump’s team as it disputed results in key states Biden had won. Those challenges and fundraising efforts underpinning them were all based on the premise that evidence of widespread voter fraud was already in hand.
But according to documents reviewed by CNN and witness testimony obtained by the House select committee that investigated January, 6, 2021, the group was used to fund a desperate search to retroactively back-up baseless claims that Trump’s lawyers had already put forward in failed lawsuits challenging the results in several states.
A series of invoices and communications obtained by election integrity groups including The Coalition for Good Governance and American Oversight show Defending the Republic contributed millions of dollars toward the push to access voting equipment in key states.
In a court filing after her indictment in Georgia, Powell denied involvement in the Coffee County breach but acknowledged that “a non-profit she founded” paid the forensics firm hired to examine voting systems there.Powell did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Smith’s investigators have also dived deep into the bewildering conspiracy theories that Trump allies pedaled following his election loss to try to convince his supporters that the polls were rigged: Smith’s team has specifically asked witnesses about certain conspiracy theories pushed by Powell including that Dominion Voting Systems had ties to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and featured software he used to rig his own election. The software company, Smartmatic, has previously said the turnout in those Venezuelan elections, not the voting system, was manipulated.
Both Dominion and Smartmatic have said that they are competitors with no corporate links, knocking down the claim pushed by Powell.
One witness who met with Smith’s team earlier last month, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, spoke at length about how Trump allies accessed voting systems in Antrim County, Michigan, shortly after Election Day. Kerik also discussed the origins of a theory that voting machines could switch votes from one candidate to another, according to his lawyer Tim Parlatore.
Kerik also acknowledged the breach of voting systems in Coffee County during his interview with federal prosecutors, Parlatore told CNN, adding that while his client raised the topic, the conversation did not delve into specifics.
Kerik and another witness who met with Smith’s team in recent weeks were both asked if Powell was ever able to back-up her various claims of fraud, including conspiracy theories that foreign countries had hacked voting equipment. Both were also asked about Defending the Republic and how it was used as a source of funding efforts to find evidence of voter fraud, sources told CNN.
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Post by Webster on Sept 11, 2023 19:38:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump moves to recuse Judge ChutkanIn a court filing on Monday, former president Donald Trump moved to recuse federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the 2020 election subversion case, citing her previous comments about his culpability. “Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” the motion for recusal reads. “Such statements, made before this case began and without due process, are inherently disqualifying.” The filing includes a reference to a statement Chutkan made during cases in 2022 before the special counsel issued findings: This was nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government by individuals who were mad that their guy lost. I see the videotapes. I see the footage of the flags and the signs that people were carrying and the hats they were wearing and the garb. And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man – not to the constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant; not to the ideals of this country; and not to the principles of democracy. It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”“Fairness and impartiality are the central tenets of our criminal justice system,” Trump’s legal team wrote in the filing. “Both a defendant and the public are entitled to a full hearing, on all relevant issues, by a Court that has not prejudged the guilt of the defendant, and whose neutrality cannot be reasonably questioned.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 11, 2023 19:43:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Though the filing only surfaced Monday, conservative calls for Chutkan to step down have been mounting in recent weeks. Republican congressman and Trump-loyalist Matt Gaetz filed a resolution to condemn and censure the federal judge for her comments in recent weeks. Just last night, Mark Levin, a conservative pundit and Fox News show host, took aim at Judge Chutkan on his program. Making the case that she is “unqualified” to preside over the case against Trump, Levin cited an investigation on Real Clear Politics, a right-leaning website largely funded by pro-Trump conservatives, that outlines many of the arguments used by the former president’s legal team to call for Chutkan’s recusal. But for all the crying-foul coming from conservatives, it will be difficult for the Trump legal team to succeed in getting her off the case. As New York University professor of law Stephen Gillers told Real Clear Politics: “Almost never will a judge be recused for opinions she forms as a judge – in hearing cases and motions. Judges are expected to form opinions based on these ‘intrajudicial’ sources. It’s what judges do.” Ultimately, Chutkan will be the one to rule on whether she is too biased to preside over the case. If she denies the recusal, Trump’s lawyers could petition an appeals court, but it’s still a long shot. This also isn’t the first time Trump has tried to get a new judge. He previously failed to get a new judge to preside over his New York State court case and also attempted to get the case moved to federal court. Trump has challenged the judge or jurisdiction in three of his four criminal cases this year, CBS News reports, excluding only Aileen Cannon – presiding over the 40 felony counts charged for “willful retention of national security information” – who he appointed.
Analysts and experts are beginning to weigh in on the filing for recusal, highlighting the high unlikelihood that it will work. “Judge Chutkan‘s statements were made at January 6 sentencings, based on evidence in those proceedings,” lawyer Max Kennerly said in a social media post. “The defendants argued they were following Trump’s instructions, so Judge Chutkan addressed that. Thus, Liteky v US applies, and the bar for recusal is nearly insurmountable.” Adam Klasfeld, a senior legal correspondent at the Messenger, highlighted how Trump has long-been critical of Chutkan, even though her rulings tend to align with Judge Aileen Cannon – who he appointed – and whose rulings he favors. Still, as Klasfeld highlights in a recent analysis, rebuking Chutkan will not likely help the former president. “I think that is to their great peril,” former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Klasfeld, noting that treating the two judges differently was a poor legal strategy. Keith Boykin, a national political commentator and author who served as a White House aide to President Bill Clinton framed the call as a more sinister tactic to discredit Chutkan. “Trump trying to get Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself is textbook Trump trying to smear a Black woman,” Boykin said in a post. “Judge Chutkan didn’t indict Trump. A grand jury did. Judge Chutkan didn’t bring the case. Jack Smith did. And Judge Chutkan won’t decide his fate. A jury of his peers will.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 12, 2023 19:31:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump asks judge to recuse herself in federal 2020 election subversion caseDonald Trump’s legal team on Monday asked the federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference prosecution against him to remove herself from the case. Lawyers for the former president argued that previous public comments by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying. The recusal motion, filed to and against Chutkan, faces major legal hurdles: to succeed, Trump must show a “reasonable person” would conclude from just her remarks – but not any of her actual rulings – that she was unable to preside impartially. Trump has long complained that the judge assigned to the case was biased against him because of her previous comments about Trump in other January 6 riot defendant cases and his legal team weighed filing the motion for weeks, two people familiar with deliberations told the Guardian. The nine-page motion identified two episodes where Chutkan remarked on her opinion about Trump’s responsibility in instigating the Capitol attack, which Trump’s lawyers argued gave rise to the appearance of potential bias or prejudice against the former president. The first instance came in October 2022 when she said, referring to January 6: And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man … It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks, which came during sentencing of a rioter who stormed the Capitol, suggested Chutkan believed Trump should have been prosecuted and jailed in a pre-judgement of guilt that alone was disqualifying. The second instance was when the judge told another January 6 rioter in December 2021: The people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.She added, “I have my opinions,” but that was out of her control. Trump’s lawyers argued that those remarks suggested Chutkan agreed with that rioter’s defense attorney, who had said Trump had falsely convinced his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that they needed to take steps to stop the peaceful transition of power.
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Post by Webster on Sept 12, 2023 19:32:39 GMT -5
(The Guardian) It was uncertain whether US district judge Tanya Chutkan’s two public statements would satisfy the high bar for removal from the 2020 election interference prosecution case. Notably, the motion by Donald Trump’s legal team did not complain about any of Chutkan’s pre-trial rulings to date, perhaps because in a handful of instances, she has ruled against prosecutors. The judge, an Obama appointee, came into the case with a reputation of being particularly tough in January 6-related prosecutions after she handed down sentences in some cases that were longer than had been requested by the justice department. Still, Chutkan is far from the only federal judge in DC – or elsewhere in the country, for that matter – who has suggested Trump might have culpability for the Capitol attack during sentencing hearings. Filing a recusal motion is not necessarily uncommon and federal judges tend not to take offense, former prosecutors and defense attorneys have said, even if Trump files them almost as a matter of routine. Recently, Trump sought to recuse the state court judge in his Manhattan criminal case, which was denied.
Should the US district judge Tanya Chutkan decline to remove herself from the case, legal experts said Donald Trump could seek to have the decision reviewed and petition the US court of appeals for the DC circuit for a writ of mandamus, a judicial order to a lower-court judge compelling an action such as recusal. The appeal could be accompanied with a motion to stay Chutkan’s rulings pending appeal, which could delay the pre-trial process and push back the current trial date set for March 2024 while that litigation continues. That kind of postponement would be beneficial to Trump, who has made clear that his overarching legal strategy for each of his criminal cases is to seek delay – preferably until after the 2024 presidential election as part of an effort to insulate himself from the charges. The consequences of an extended delay could be far-reaching. If the case is not adjudicated until after the 2024 election and Trump is re-elected, he could try to pardon himself or direct the attorney general to have the justice department drop the case in its entirety.
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Post by Webster on Sept 15, 2023 22:07:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Special counsel fights Trump's attempt to remove judge in January 6 caseProsecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith urged the judge overseeing his federal 2020 election interference criminal case to deny a request by Donald Trump to recuse herself from the case. Trump’s legal team on Monday asked US district judge Tanya Chutkan to remove herself, arguing that her previous public comments about the former president’s culpability in the January 6 Capitol attack were disqualifying. The nine-page motion identified two episodes where Chutkan remarked on her opinion about Trump’s responsibility in instigating the Capitol attack, which Trump’s lawyers argued gave rise to the appearance of potential bias or prejudice against the former president. In a blistering 20-page motion filed on Friday, Smith wrote: There is no valid basis, under the relevant law and facts, for the Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, to disqualify herself in this proceeding.In seeking Chutkan’s recusal, Trump “both takes out of context the Court’s words from prior judicial proceedings and misstates the proper legal standards governing judicial recusals”, prosecutors wrote.
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