CHERRY-PICKED

Prosecutors Slam Trump’s Demand for D.C. Judge’s Recusal

Trump “cherry-picks” from Judge Tanya Chutkan’s quotes and has failed to show “the deep-seated antagonism required for recusal,” the feds argued.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s office filed a 20-page motion Thursday strongly opposing former President Donald Trump’s attempts to have a U.S. District judge recuse herself from his federal election interference case. While Trump has claimed Judge Tanya Chutkan’s previous harsh statements about Jan. 6 rioters in other D.C. cases proves bias against him, prosecutors said there was absolutely “no valid basis” to have Chutkan disqualify herself. Instead, prosecutors said Trump “cherry-picks” from Chutkan’s quotes and failed to show “the deep-seated antagonism required for recusal.” Trump had cited two sentencing hearings for Capitol rioters in which the defendants had tried to argue they were just following Trump’s lead, which led Chutkan to allude to the ex-president not yet being held accountable. However, prosecutors said Chutkun never said Trump was was “legally or morally culpable” for Jan. 6 or that he “deserved punishment.” They added, “Tellingly, [Trump] does not cite a single case in which recusal has been warranted on remotely similar facts.”