Trump case Judge Tanya S. Chutkan once ruled 'presidents are not kings'

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Former President Donald Trump's third criminal indictment this year will put him before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who has ruled against him over records possibly related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

In 2021, Chutkan denied Trump's motion to block call logs and other records from being turned over to the House Select Committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She was randomly selected Tuesday to preside over what special counsel Jack Smith said will be a speedy trial on charges that Trump perpetrated a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Jan. 6 attack.

A former public defender, Chutkan, 61, was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2014 by former President Barack Obama.

She was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and earned her bachelor's degree in economics from George Washington University in Washington. Chutkan earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

In her 2021 ruling against Trump, Chutkan wrote, "Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president," refuting the former president's claim of executive privilege over relevant records of communication from the White House.

The judge ultimately decided that the House committee request was supported by substantial public interest in the records. She also noted that the decision by President Joe Biden to not invoke executive privilege on behalf of Trump was not "unprecedented" as Trump claimed.

"History is replete with examples of past presidents declining to assert the privilege," Chutkan wrote. "Past presidents have balanced the executive branch's interest in maintaining confidential communications against the public's interest in the requested information."

Those records proved to be critical in the committee's referrals for criminal charges to the Justice Department, as well as the four-count indictment laid out Tuesday.

Chutkan has also ruled against defendants charged with attacking the Capitol, entering the building and clashing with law enforcement. Thirty-one defendants have come before her and each has received sentences that included time behind bars.

In some of those rulings, she has alluded to the role that Trump and others played in inciting rioters to violence.

When she sentenced rioter Robert Palmer in 2021, Chutkan stated that the people who encouraged him to rally at the Capitol and participate in the attack had not been charged. But she determined that the incitement by others would not be cause for a lighter sentence.

"The people who planned this and funded it and encouraged it haven't been charged, but that's not a reason for you to get a lower sentence," Chutkan said. "I have to make it clear that the actions you engaged in cannot happen again.

"Every day we're hearing about reports of anti-democratic factions of people plotting violence, the potential threat of violence, in 2024."