Trump's Move to Recuse Judge Chutkan Panned by Experts: 'Ridiculous Motion'

Legal experts are panning former President Donald Trump's request for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself in his federal election interference case as "ridiculous" and doomed to failure.

In a motion for recusal on Monday, Trump's legal team argued that Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, made "prior negative statements regarding [former] President Trump" that would "unavoidably taint" his trial related to an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that followed.

The motion includes Chutkan quotes from two trials involving January 6 defendants, which Trump's lawyers claim are evidence that she has "prejudged the guilt" of the former president. Chutkan will ultimately decide whether to grant or deny the motion, although Trump could appeal if she rejects recusing herself.

The motion was met with a mostly negative response from legal experts, many of whom argued that the filing lacked the type of evidence that would compel Chutkan to recuse herself.

In an email on Monday night, Professor Carl Tobias, Williams chair in law at the University of Richmond, told Newsweek that the motion was "not sound." He also suggested that Trump's lawyers were unlikely to succeed on appeal if the motion is denied.

"These motions are almost never granted unless there is a very clear conflict of interest, which is not present in this case," Tobias wrote. "The only thing rarer than how infrequently they are granted is how rarely appeals courts differ with trial court recusal rulings."

On X, formerly Twitter, Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, called the filing "a ridiculous motion" that was "filed far too late and without any plausible supporting argument." Tribe predicted that the motion "should and will be denied."

In an email to Newsweek, Tribe further rejected the assertion from Trump's lawyers that Chutkan's comments in the two January 6 cases show she is biased, writing that the judge "did not prejudge Trump's guilt — certainly not of the charges pending before her, which conspicuously do not include any charge of insurrection."

Conservative lawyer and frequent Trump critic George Conway argued on X that a Chutkan case cited in the motion—when the judge mentioned that "the people" who encouraged a January 6 defendant to "take action and to fight" had "not been charged"—had shown that Trump's lawyers themselves assumed the former president was responsible for the attack.

"A careful reading of this excerpt from Trump's recusal brief shows it's not Judge Chutkan who has expressed the view that P01135809 'was responsible for the events of January 6,' but rather Trump's lawyers, via *their* assumption that their client planned the attack," Conway wrote while sharing a passage from the filing. "Oops."

"This filing to remove Judge Chutkan is made for Trump's base, as it is way off the mark legally; and to boot it should have been filed long ago, not after her ruling on a trial date," former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann posted.

"Trump's motion for Judge Chutkan's recusal is very unlikely to succeed," posted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. "Among other things, the initial decision will be made by Judge Chutkan herself.

"It was poor judgment to make this motion — it strongly suggests that Trump is dictating strategy," he added. "Foolish tactical move."

Trump's motion was supported by some. Conservative activist Tom Fitton, who is not an attorney but heads the pro-Trump group Judicial Watch, argued that the motion "makes [a] strong case for recusal of Judge Chutkan."

Conservative activist and lawyer Mike Davis said on X that Chutkan "did not have the intelligence or discipline to refrain from pronouncing Trump's guilt at prior proceedings for other January 6th defendants," while insisting "if she wants to restore integrity to these proceedings, she must recuse."

Trump's case before Chutkan is one of four criminal proceedings against the ex-president and accounts for only four of the 91 felony charges facing him.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges, claiming to be the victim of a "witch hunt" and "election interference" while campaigning as the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.