Trump will face hardline judge who's jailed every Jan 6 rioter she has sentenced
Donald Trump is to appear in front of America’s “toughest” judge after he was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The former president will stand before Justice Tanya Chutkan, who will oversee the case against him – and could send him to prison if he is found guilty. The US district court judge has been branded the “toughest punisher” for handing out harsh sentences to those involved in the 2021 Capitol riots. She has jailed all 31 of the rioters who have come before her.
On Tuesday, Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges were unsealed two weeks after the billionaire businessman said he learned he would be indicted over the riots.
They saw thousands of Trump loyalists storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to stop then-Vice President Mike Pence from naming Joe Biden winner of the presidential election. Pence, who is among the Republican contenders running against Trump to be the party’s presidential candidate in 2024, has said of his former boss: “The indictment serves as an important reminder… anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.”
Donald Trump is facing another raft of charges (Getty Images)Today will not be the first time Trump has come up against Judge Chutkan. In November 2021, she denied his bid to block the National Archives from turning over his administration’s records to the investigating committee. In her ruling, Judge Chutkan wrote: “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”
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Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, said the attack on the Capitol was “fuelled by lies” from Trump and he would be seeking a speedy trial. The former president has now been charged three times this year.
The first, in March, was for falsifying business records then in June, he was charged with crimes related to mishandling classified documents. Later this month, prosecutors in Georgia are also expected to charge Trump over allegations he tried to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 general election result.
Meanwhile, it emerged the Republicans spent more than £31million on legal costs in the first half of this year to defend Trump and his advisers. It comes as his allies have set up a new fund, called the Patriot Legal Defence Fund, to help cover his soaring legal fees.
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