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Gaetz introduces resolution to censure Trump Judge Tanya Chutkan: ‘Blatant political bias from the bench’

August 19, 2023 | | Print Article

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has introduced a resolution to “censure and condemn” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the indictment of former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.

In a statement posted to X on Friday, Gaetz accused the judge of exhibiting “blatant political bias from the bench” in her sentencing of “January 6th defendants.”

“It is deeply concerning that a United States District Court judge would exhibit such blatant political bias from the bench. Judge Tanya Chutkan’s extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants, while openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, showcases a complete disregard for her duty of impartiality and the rule of law,” Gaetz said.

“Today I am introducing a resolution to censure and condemn United States District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge presiding over President Donald Trump’s case in Washington, D.C., for showing open bias and partisanship in her official duties on the bench,” he announced.

“Justice may be blind,” Gaetz added, “but the American people are not – we see Judge Chutkan for her actions, and we rebuke them in the greatest possible sense.”

According to the congressman’s press release, “Tanya Chutkan was appointed as a district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by President Barack Obama after donating thousands of dollars to get him elected.”

“During her time on the bench, Judge Chutkan has inappropriately expressed support for violent protests that occurred in the summer of 2020, all the while handing down multiple tough sentences to non-violent January 6th defendants,” it continues. “Additionally, during a sentencing hearing in October 2022, she inappropriately lamented that President Donald Trump ‘remains free to this day.'”

Chutkan “made headlines for dealing out sentences to members of the Jan. 6 crowd that were higher than those recommended by federal prosecutors,” Fox News reports.

In the resolution, Gaetz cites as an example of Chutkan’s conduct, “a sentencing related to January 6, on October 4, 2021” in which the judge “issued a bizarre rant, opining that ‘People gathered all over the country last year to protest the violent murder by the police of an unarmed man . . . to compare the actions of people protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights, to those of a violent mob seeking to overthrow the lawfully elected government is a false equivalency and ignores a very real danger that the January 6 riot posed to the foundation of our democracy.'”

The man who was being sentenced on the day of that rant, Matthew Mazzocco, “was a nonviolent offender who spent merely 12 minutes on Capitol grounds, and who urged others to remain peaceful on January 6, 2021,” Gaetz wrote.

“Chutkan had sentenced Mazzocco to 45 days in jail over the misdemeanor charge,” according to Fox News.

As BizPac Review previously reported, Trump blasted Judge Chutkan, suggesting she is either incapable or unwilling to set her left-wing ideology and biases aside to allow him a fair trial.

“THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ‘ASSIGNED’ TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE,” Trump fumed in all caps on Truth Social. “EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS.”

 

Melissa Fine
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