LAST UPDATE | 6 Aug 2023

DONALD TRUMP SAID today he will petition a US court to have the judge in his criminal trial recused, arguing the person overseeing the jury deciding the ex-president’s fate will not give him a fair shake.

The twice-impeached Republican has unleashed a stream of invective against those prosecuting him or running the case in which he faces charges over attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and defraud the United States.

His latest target: US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, the appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama presiding over the case in Washington.

“There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge ‘assigned’ to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she,” Trump, using all capital letters, posted on his Truth Social platform.

“We will be immediately asking for recusal of this judge on very powerful grounds, and likewise for venue change,” out of Washington — a majority Black city that leans heavily Democratic.

Chutkan has rebuffed the Trump legal team’s recent demands.

On Saturday she denied their motion to extend a deadline for responding to the US government’s protective order request that could limit what Trump and his lawyers can share publicly about his case.

Team Trump wanted to push the deadline to Thursday, but the judge said they must abide by the current deadline of 5:00 pm Monday.

Chutkan, 61, is one of a dozen judges on the Washington federal district court bench and was randomly assigned to the case.

She has a legal history with Trump, having ruled against him in a November 2021 case in which she notably declared that “presidents are not kings.” And she has handed down lengthy sentences to Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 of that year.

Protective order

Trump’s legal team, which has indicated he would look to slow the case down despite prosecutors’ pledge of a speedy trial, then filed a request to extend the response deadline to Thursday and to hold a hearing on the matter.

The former president’s lawyers wrote: “Defendant is prepared to confer in good faith regarding an appropriate protective order and hopes the government will accept his invitation to do so.”

They criticised prosecutors for filing their proposal without giving the two sides enough time to discuss.

Such protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it is “particularly important in this case” because Trump has posted on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him”.

Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform from earlier on Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”

Prosecutors said they are ready to hand over a “substantial” amount of evidence — “much of which includes sensitive and confidential information” — to Trump’s legal team.

They told the judge that if Trump were to begin posting about grand jury transcripts or other evidence provided by the Justice Department, it could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case”.

Prosecutors’ proposed protective order seeks to prevent Trump and his lawyers from disclosing materials provided by the government to anyone other than people on his legal team, possible witnesses, the witnesses’ lawyers or others approved by the court.

It would put stricter limits on “sensitive materials”, which would include grand jury witness testimony and materials obtained through sealed search warrants.

A spokesperson for Trump said in an emailed statement that the former president’s post “is the definition of political speech”, and was made in response to “dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs”.

The indictment unsealed this week accuses Trump of brazenly conspiring with allies to spread falsehoods and concoct schemes intended to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden as his legal challenges floundered in court.

The indictment chronicles how Trump and his Republican allies, in what Smith described as an attack on a “bedrock function of the US government”, repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.

Trump faces charges including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

It is the third criminal case brought this year against the the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

But it is the first case to try to hold Trump responsible for his efforts to remain in power during the chaotic weeks between his election loss and the attack by his supporters on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

After his court appearance on Thursday before a magistrate judge, Trump characterised the case as a “persecution” designed to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.

His legal team has described it as an attack on his right to free speech and his right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.

Smith has said prosecutors will seek a “speedy trial” against Trump in the election case.

Chutkan has ordered the government to file a brief by Thursday proposing a trial date. The first court hearing in front of Chutkan is scheduled for 28 August.

Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in the New York case stemming from hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign and in May in the federal case in Florida stemming from classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

With reporting from AFP