Who is Tanya Chutkan, Judge Assigned to the Trump Jan. 6 Trial?
When former President Donald J. Trump appears in court before Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on charges of conspiring to subvert American democracy, it will not be the first time she has dealt with high-profile questions related to Mr. Trump’s attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
Nearly two years ago, Judge Chutkan rejected Mr. Trump's efforts to prevent his White House records from being given to the House committee investigating his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters — delivering a swift and sharp rebuke about the limits of his ability as former president to invoke executive privilege.
“Presidents are not kings,” she wrote, “and plaintiff is not president.”
It is not clear when Judge Chutkan, 61, and Mr. Trump will first meet. He is set to appear before a magistrate judge for an initial court appearance on Thursday, where he is likely to be arraigned and enter a plea of not guilty — just as he did in June in a separate case involving his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Source: The New York Times
