The Judge handling Trump’s Jan 6 case is his worst nightmare!

Judge Chutkan already made it clear she is not playing around!

Donald Trump—who is facing 78 felonies in three different jurisdictions—is freaking out over the Judge randomly assigned to his Jan 6 case. There was Trump Sunday—taking a break from attacking Mike Pence-- demanding the judge recuse herself.

And you know what? Trump should be freaking out. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is his worst nightmare.

The truth is Judge Chutkan—a former federal public defender—will provide Trump with a very fair trial. In fact, she is known for being very protective of defendant’s rights. From a fairness point of view, Chutkan—who has served on the bench for nearly a decade—will be perfect.

Why Judge Chutkan is Trump’s worst nightmare is for various other reasons. For starters, from a legal point of view, we are already seeing that she is not going to allow Trump to delay the proceedings like he so desperately wants to do.

This became obvious to all after Federal prosecutors filed a motion on Friday night to limit what discovery evidence Trump could share publicly about the ongoing criminal case related to the 2020 presidential election. This motion came just hours after Trump threatened on Truth Social that he would take revenge on anyone who goes after him.

On Saturday, Judge Chutkan gave Trump's legal team until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the prosecutor's motion. Trump's attorneys responded with a request for a three-day extension.

Clearly this was a test balloon by Trump’s team to see how the judge would respond to a delaying tactic. Well, Trump and his lawyers swiftly received their answer within hours when the judge denied their request for extra time. Boom!

The Judge just made it abundantly clear to Trump who is in charge—which no doubt fed his angry post calling for the judge to be removed from the case.

There are also a few more reasons why Judge Chutkan is Trump’s worst nightmare. The first is from a case in 2021, when Trump was doing all he could to prevent the House Jan 6 committee from having access to hundreds of pages of documents from the Trump White House. In essence, Trump was arguing that as a former president he is still entitled to special treatment when it comes to his records.

Judge Chutkan—very correctly—was not buying it. She stated in her well-reasoned opinion that Trump "does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President's judgment."  This comes as no surprise since Trump refused to even acknowledge he lost the 2020 election and in his twisted view, he still had the powers of a President.

Chutkan continued about Trump, "His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power 'exists in perpetuity.'" Chutkan then added the most quoted line from her decision, "But Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President." (Judge Chutkan’s decision was upheld by the US Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court refused to hear it, thus, allowing the decision to stand.)

The first part of Judge Chutkan’s famous line "But Presidents are not kings” is so vitally important. She is telling Trump and all who will listen that we don’t have a King with unrestrained powers. Rather we are a nation of laws—which is something Trump rejects as we saw with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Another reason Trump is freaking out is that Judge Chutkan has a history of harshly sentencing Jan 6 defendants. According to a Washington Post database tracking Jan 6th-related sentences, Chutkan has sentenced defendants to terms that met or exceeded the recommendations of prosecutors in 23 of the 31 cases she’s handled. In comparison, judges in the DC federal court have, on average, handed down sentences that fell below prosecutors’ recommendations in roughly 80 percent of all January 6 cases.

Some may think these harsh sentences are inconsistent with a former public defender who has a history of pro-defendant judicial decisions such as her 2017 ruling that an American citizen being held in military detention in Iraq as a suspected member of ISIS had a right to a lawyer-- over the Trump administration’s objections.  It’s not. It all comes from the same place of both believing in our Constitution and defending it.  She was ensuring that all have legal counsel—a right guaranteed to us by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution.  And at the same time, ensuring that those who sought to end our democratic Republic are punished.

That explains Chutkan’s—an Obama appointee who was confirmed by the Senate 95-0—stinging words when sentencing one of the Jan 6 defendants in 2021. At the time, she stated Jan 6 was “an attempt of a violent mob to prevent the orderly and peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next” and their efforts “soiled and defaced the halls of the Capitol.” She continued, “The country is watching to see what the consequences are,” adding, “There have to be consequences.”  

She is 100% correct. Without consequences why wouldn’t these terrorists repeat the same conduct in the service of Trump?!

This history tell us that If Trump is convicted of any of the four felonies he is charged with, it’s very likely Judge Chutkan would sentence him to prison—NOT home arrest at Mar-a-Lago.

The final reason Judge Chutkan is Trump’s worst nightmare is that she is a Black, immigrant woman. She represents so much of what Trump and his bigoted base hate. As a reminder, his supporters gleefully chanted “Send her back!” about Rep. Ilhan Omar, another Black, immigrant woman—following the tweets of Trump sharing the same racist sentiment.

As we all know, Trump always attacks the judges in the cases against him—even those he has appointed as we saw in December 2020 when the US Supreme Court denied his request to overturn the 2020 election. He then slammed the Justices for being cowards and having “no wisdom.” It didn’t matter to Trump that three of the Justice who ruled against him were personally appointed by him. As an aside, the only judge Trump has not attacked yet is Judge Aileen Cannon—a judge he personally appointed—who is presiding over his Espionage case. But as soon as she rules against Trump on any issue, he will attack her.

But with Judge Chutkan, Trump has met his match. She is a seasoned judge and former tough public defender. She won’t be putting up with Trump’s games—as we already witnessed with his request for a delay in the motion for a protective order.  And after Trump is convicted, she will be one sentencing him to prison—hopefully for the rest of his natural life.

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