Former President Donald Trump's legal team is asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself from the ex-president's federal election interference case.
Lawyers for Trump on Monday raised issues of "fairness and impartiality" while filing a motion for recusal, arguing that Chutkan's "prior negative statements regarding [former] President Trump" would "unavoidably taint" the proceedings.
"Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned," Trump's lawyers wrote. "Her public statements unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of outcome."
Trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts in the case, accused of attempting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to President Joe Biden and over his actions surrounding the subsequent January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Chutkan's comments in two previous cases involving January 6 defendants were highlighted by the former president's lawyers in Monday's filing.
In an October 2022 case, Chutkan described the Capitol riot as "an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government by individuals who were mad that their guy lost."
"The people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man," said Chutkan. "Blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day."
Attorneys for the former president said that Chutkan's remarks indicated that she had made a "prejudgment of guilt."
In a December 2021 case, Chutkan said that "the people" who encouraged a defendant to "take action and to fight have not been charged."
Trump's lawyers argued that the statement would "create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system."
The office of Special Counsel Jack Smith declined Newsweek's request for comment on Monday.
The fate of the motion for recusal will be up to Chutkan, who has given no indication that she intends to recuse herself. If she declines to recuse herself, Trump's team may file an appeal.
Trump called for the removal of Chutkan, a former President Barack Obama appointee, only days after she was randomly assigned to the case, claiming in a Truth Social post on August 6 that he would be "immediately" asking for her recusal "on very powerful grounds."
The former president's attorney, John Lauro, quickly walked back Trump's announcement, saying the next day that no "final decision" had been made and that Trump had been speaking as a "layman."
Lauro, who signed off on the motion filed Monday, had a heated exchange with Chutkan during a hearing that set Trump's trial start date for March 4, with the judge at one point urging him to "take the temperature down."
Trump previously called for acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to recuse himself in Manhattan, where the former president is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Merchan denied the request.
No recusal requests have been made for Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over Trump's election interference case in Georgia, or for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, overseeing his federal documents case in Florida.
Cannon is a Trump appointee who has been accused of making "questionable rulings" that favor the ex-president.
Update 09/11/23; 6:39 p.m.: This article has been updated with further information and background.
