To a reporter for a left-wing publication, being interviewed by a left-wing network, it probably sounded like good news.
But for any conservative American — or even a liberal who cares about integrity in the judicial system — an MSNBC interview Saturday about the judge’s conduct during a hearing on Friday carried a disturbing message:
In former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in D.C., justice isn’t going to be blind — but the judge is going to pretend she can’t see the facts in front of her.
On Saturday Katie Phang, a notorious liberal even by MSNBC’s notoriously liberal standards, interviewed Hugo Lowell, an investigations reporter for The Guardian, a left-wing newspaper based in the U.K. (It’s roughly the British equivalent of the New York Times — just as biased, but maybe better written.)
Lowell described the behavior of Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump’s trial related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion.
And Chutkan, Lowell said, made a point of pretending politics wasn’t involved in the case at all.
If her words didn’t make that clear, her body language did.
While she appeared to sympathize with some of Trump attorney John Lauro’s arguments at times, Lowell said, “other times she grew exasperated by all the discussion about politics. At one point, she kind of put her face in her hands. She kind of rolled her eyes when there was another discussion about the Biden administration coming after Trump.”
That doesn’t bode well for either the former president, the interests of justice, or the reputation of the American legal system.
The Trump case isn’t taking place in a vacuum — Judge Chutkan knows that the prosecution and defense lawyers know it, and everyone in the United States who follows politics knows it.
As a man who has been repeatedly targeted by a “Justice Department” headed by a vindictive Attorney General Merrick Garland and partisan attack dog Jack Smith — not to mention an FBI raid on his own home — Trump is in a unique position in American politics and history.
As the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination by a country mile — a spread of almost 40 percent, according to the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average — Trump is the top political challenger to President Joe Biden’s re-election.
The criminal case against him related to Jan. 6 — shockingly weak by constitutional standards — is unique in American law.
But Chutkan is going to pretend that none of that is true — rolling her eyes when Trump’s attorney mentions the Biden administration targeting his client, putting her face in her hands to signify her displeasure.
The antics Lowell described are appalling — and Trump supporters on social media weren’t shy about calling it out:
https://twitter.com/LisaWasHere7713/status/1690421855939661825
Chutkan’s work history is not encouraging — she worked as an attorney at the same firm, at the same time, as the president’s son Hunter Biden. (It was the Democratic powerhouse Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP, where the chairman, David Boies, represented Democratic nominee Al Gore in the Supreme Court during the 2000 election fight.)
Her attitude toward Jan. 6 defendants has what can only be called vengeful, imposing punishments that go beyond what even prosecutors have recommended.
Her rulings so far might have a patina of legal logic, but could easily turn into weapons against Trump at a moment’s notice.
And, if Lowell’s description is accurate, she’s determined to pretend she is administering justice as though nothing outside the courtroom is actually happening.
“She kind of repeatedly said, ‘Trump’s decision to wage a political campaign to run for president comes second to the fact that he is now a criminal defendant, going to criminal trial, and he’s going to be treated like any other criminal defendant,’” Lowell told Phang.
But Trump is not any other criminal defendant. The prosecution against him would not have been brought against any other criminal defendant. And its ramifications are going to be beyond any other criminal defendant’s case — at least in the political realm.
Chutkan’s apparent determination to pretend reality doesn’t exist — and her teenage melodrama methods of demonstrating that determination — look likely to tarnish not only Trump’s case with her contempt but the reputation of the American legal system as a whole.
Tanya Chutkan can pretend justice in her courtroom is blind — she can roll her eyes and put her head in her hands and do engage in every other form of teenager melodrama that will thrill her liberal fans.
But the rest of the country isn’t blind to what’s happening here. It can see the fix is in.
And it can see the disgrace Democrats are bringing to the country — from Joe Biden to Merrick Garland to Judge Tanya Chutkan and her kangaroo court.
via magatribute
