Judge in D.C. Trump Case Has Handed Out Long Jan. 6 Sentences

The federal judge assigned to handle the latest court case stemming from the four-count indictment issued against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday is a Barack Obama appointee, and the only federal D.C. judge who has sentenced Jan. 6 defendants to longer sentences than were requested by the government.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, according to the Caribbean National Weekly, is a Jamaican-American immigrant with a background as a lawyer and jurist in Washington before her appointment by Obama in December 2013.

Chutkan is no stranger to Trump’s legal situation. She previously denied his plea to withhold records from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the Weekly noted. She’s also the same judge who in November 2021 ruled against Trump when he tried to invoke executive privilege to keep his White House papers secret from the Jan. 6 Committee. She wrote: “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”

Those decisions were upheld by the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court.

Chutkan, 61, graduated from George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

After years of serving as a trial attorney and as a supervisor at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, she was appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate 95-0.

In 2017, she ruled against Public.Resource.Org, on deleting building codes and fire codes. She has also ruled against the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice in separate cases.

Newsmax’s Mike Wallace contributed to this report.