Gaetz Moves To Censure Judge Chutkan For Bias, Partisanship
On Friday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a resolution to censure Judge Tanya Chutkan — the judge presiding over the federal government’s case against former President Donald Trump for his legal challenges to the 2020 election — for her open bias and partisanship in her handling of cases related to the January 6 Capitol protests.
Gaetz explained his reasoning behind the resolution in a written statement to Fox News Digital on Friday.
“It is deeply concerning to see a United States District Court judge show such blatant impropriety from the bench,” his statement read.
“Judge Tanya Chutkan’s impracticality of her tough sentencing of Jan. 6th defendants, despite openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, showcases not only a lack of impartiality but also a disregard for the sacred duty of a judge to uphold justice fairly,” the statement continued.
As Gaetz noted, Chutkan is known for giving harsh sentences to January 6 defendants — including sentencing several of these defendants to more time than the prosecution had requested.
The conservative congressman also accused Chutkan of supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 while condemning the January 6 protesters — who were far less violent and destructive in comparison.
In his resolution, Gaetz quoted Chutkan from October 2021 — where she disagreed with a comparison between the two events.
“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 Jan. 6 riot posed to the foundation of our democracy,” the judge is quoted as saying, according to Gaetz’s resolution.
Gaetz also pointed to Chutkan’s sentencing of Matthew Mazzocco — “a nonviolent offender who spent merely 12 minutes on Capitol grounds and who urged others to remain peaceful” — to 45 days in jail over a misdemeanor charge as evidence of her bias and partisanship.
The resolution also calls on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate Chutkan’s conduct.
Gaetz’s resolution comes as many are demanding that Chutkan recuse herself from this case, pointing to all of the reasons Gaetz has cited — as well as her previous connection to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden — as conflicts of interest. Chutkan previously worked for the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner at the same time that Hunter Biden worked for the firm.
