Former President Donald Trump appears to be heading for a rough ride in federal court following being indicted by the Justice Department Tuesday in relation to his questioning of the integrity of the 2020 election.
U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Tanya Chutkan, appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, has been assigned to the case.
The Associate Press described her as the “toughest punisher” of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion defendants.
NBC News noted that Chutkan is unique among federal judges in handing out longer prison sentences to Jan. 6 defendants than those requested by the government.
Chutkan previously ruled against Trump in November 2021 forcing him to turn over presidential records he claimed were privileged to the House Jan. 6 committee.
“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. He retains the right to assert that his records are privileged, but the incumbent President ‘is not constitutionally obliged to honor’ that assertion,” she held.
Trump faces four counts in the latest DOJ indictment: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump created “widespread mistrust” in his attempt to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election,” special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment reads.
The 45th president knew that his allegations of fraud were false when he made them, Smith alleged.
“Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” the indictment says.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump responded to the prospect of being indicted again by the special counsel’s office by writing on Truth Social, “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!”
He added in another post, “Also, why are they putting out another Fake Indictment the day after the Crooked Joe Biden SCANDAL, one of the biggest in American history, broke out in the Halls of Congress??? A Nation In Decline!”
Trump was referencing Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer’s closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill Monday.
Archer reportedly confirmed President Joe Biden was on numerous calls with those Hunter was doing business deals with over a decade period.
Pres. Biden has repeatedly denied having knowledge of Hunter’s overseas business deals that have netted the first son millions of dollars.
Pres. Biden and Hunter have been accused of each taking a $5 million bribe from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, while Joe Biden was vice president.
via westernjournal
