Key takeaways:
- Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, has a reputation for imposing tough penalties on rioters who participated in the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
- Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has accused Chutkan of being “relentlessly hostile” to Trump and having “a reputation for being far-left.”
- In June 2014, every Senate Republican voted to confirm Judge Chutkan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A federal judge who has been randomly assigned to preside over former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment is no stranger to cases related to the 2021 attack on the Capitol. Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has served on the bench for nearly a decade, has established a reputation for imposing some of the toughest penalties on rioters who participated in the attack.
Barely a day after Trump was indicted for the third time, some Senate Republicans are already trying to undermine the credibility of Judge Chutkan. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Chutkan of being “relentlessly hostile” to Trump and claimed that she has “a reputation for being far-left, even by D.C. District Court standards.”
In December 2021, Chutkan handed down what was then the longest sentence — just over five years — for a Florida man who had been charged with dispensing a fire extinguisher and throwing it at police during the attack.
What some Senate Republicans are not mentioning is that they unanimously voted to confirm Judge Chutkan in June 2014. Cruz, along with every other Senate Republican, voted to put Chutkan into her seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The confirmation of Judge Chutkan is a reminder that the Senate Republicans have the power to confirm or reject judicial nominees. While they may now be trying to undermine the credibility of Judge Chutkan, they were the ones who put her in her seat in the first place.
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