Tanya S. Chutkan, the federal district judge who was arbitrarily chosen to preside over the latest accusation against former President Donald Trump, is no stranger to situations involving Jan. 6.
Chutkan, a judge appointed by Obama who has been on the court for almost ten years, swiftly gained a reputation for handing out some of the harshest punishments to rioters who took part in the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
In December 2021, Chutkan gave a Florida man who had been charged with discharging a fire extinguisher and hurling it at police during the attack the then-longest sentence at the time, which was slightly over five years.
“It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment,” Chutkan said at the time.
Additionally, she is the sole federal judge in Washington, D.C., to have imposed terms on Jan. 6 defendants that were longer than what the prosecution had asked for.
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Chutkan argued that the government’s suggested home confinement was insufficient during a 2021 sentencing hearing for a man who entered the Capitol on January 6.
She sentenced the defendant to 45 days in jail, saying, “There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government beyond sitting at home.”
A Washington, D.C., citizen who charged at a Capitol Police officer with a pole was also given a 63-month federal prison term by Chutkan last year. The government requested a 60-month sentence.
On Thursday, a new judge will preside over Trump’s arraignment. The former president is expected to appear before federal magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
The grand jury that was called by special counsel Jack Smith to look into attempts to rig the 2020 election returned an indictment against Trump on Tuesday. He was accused on four charges of conspiring to defraud the United States and preventing President Joe Biden from winning the election.
Chutkan has previously ruled over legal disputes involving the former president, so when she takes on Trump’s case, it won’t be the first.
She turned down Trump’s request in 2021 to prevent the House Committee on January 6 from acquiring White House records from his administration pertaining to the Capitol riot.
The Jan. 6 committee was able to obtain the documents it had requested from the National Archives that it claimed were related to Trump and his administration’s actions before, during, and after the Capitol attack as a result of her decision, which argued that Biden was not constitutionally required to uphold his predecessor’s claims of executive privilege over the documents.