“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,” Special Counsel Jack Smith said in his response to the long-shot motion by Donald Trump to get the judge removed from Trump’s federal lawsuit in DC relating to his attempt to undermine the 2020 presidential election.
“The defendant cites only one case in which a court found that recusal was warranted on the basis of a judge’s statements. But that case—United States v. Microsoft Corp., 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001)—undermines the defendant’s position rather than supports it, because the judge’s extrajudicial statements in that case are so easily contrasted with this Court’s, in both content and setting,” Smith stated, noting that in Microsoft, the judge was removed because he indeed made prejudicial statements in the antitrust case, including secretly telling reporters he believed Microsoft should lose the case. Chutkan’s statements, made during sentencing hearings for January 6th convicts in response to the defendants’ statements, were milquetoast by comparison, with Chutkan saying the leaders of the coup had not yet been held responsible while she sentenced the defendants.