U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan To Oversee Trump’s Jan. 6 Conspiracy Case

Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was randomly selected to oversee the case.

Chutkan was born in Jamaica and received her bachelor’s degree in economics from George Washington University. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and worked in private practice for three years before joining the District of Columbia Public Defender Service, where she worked as a trial attorney.

Following her 12 years at the law firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP — where she specialized in litigation and white-collar criminal defense — former President Barack Obama appointed Chutkan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2014.

Chutkan has already been assigned multiple January 6 cases and is known for setting tougher sentences than requested by the Justice Department. She also previously denied Trump’s emergency motion to stop the National Archives from turning over his administration’s records to the January 6 committee.

In her ruling, she wrote, “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not president.”

Trump will appear for his arraignment at the D.C. district courthouse on August 3, where he will go before Chutkan for the first time. The former president is being charged on four counts for his false election fraud claims and role in the capitol insurrection.