Former President Donald Trump's attorneys argued again for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's recusal from the 2020 election interference case against him in Washington, D.C., according to a Sunday night court filing.
The document, obtained by CNN, revealed that Trump's legal team used Chutkan's words against her and argued that the prosecution of the former president could come across as biased, given his political success.
"The public must have confidence that President Trump's constitutional rights are being protected by an unbiased judicial officer," his lawyers reportedly wrote. "No president is a king, but every president is a United States citizen entitled to the protections and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."
Chutkan used the phrase "presidents are not kings" – originally written by now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a previous Trump lawsuit – when denying the former president's bid to block House investigators from accessing his presidential records. According to CNN, the phrase has become associated with Chutkan's jurisprudence.
Chutkan, a harsh judge on the Jan. 6 cases, ultimately will decide if she should recuse herself. Trump's request is a long shot, but his court filings asking for the judge's recusal could be used to appeal if he is convicted.
Because defendants must question the judge who presides over their trials and the standard for a recusal is high, such attempts are often fraught and largely unsuccessful.
Trump has been seemingly undaunted in recent days, using court filings to attack the federal case against him and questioning Chutkan's fairness.
"The core value at issue here is whether the public will accept these proceedings as legitimate; or instead view them as a politically motivated effort by the incumbent administration to take out its most significant political opponent in a presidential campaign—the opponent who, by the way, is not only free, but has a strong lead in the polls," Trump's attorneys wrote.
Public confidence "is not an insignificant consideration, it is the consideration," they continued. "No system of justice can survive if its citizens lose faith in it."
Special counsel Jack Smith said there is "no valid basis" for Trump's call for Chutkan to recuse herself.
In a 20-page motion filed in response to Trump's demand for the judge's recusal, Smith argued that the former president hasn't proven that Chutkan has displayed bias.
"He must show that they display a deep-seated animosity toward him," Smith said in his motion. "The defendant cannot meet this heavy burden… because the defendant cannot point to any statements expressing actual bias, all he can say — and he says it repeatedly — is that the court's comments 'suggest' some sort of bias or prejudice toward the defendant."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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