Trump calls for recusal of judge in election fraud case

Washington, Aug 7: Former US President Donald Trump has called for recusal of the judge in the 2020 election fraud case. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday morning to express his displeasure with a federal indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. He described the case as “the ridiculous freedom of speech, slash fair elections case” and said that his legal team would immediately be asking for recusal of the judge. Trump has said that he will ask the judge to step aside on what he called “very powerful grounds”, the BBC reported. He gave no details of his grounds for asking her to step down. The former President has said there is “no way” he can get a fair trial with the judge assigned to his case. Federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Trump case, was appointed in 2014 by former President Barack Obama. Judge Chutkan previously ruled against Trump’s efforts to shield evidence from the House January 6 Committee and has faced frequent attacks from Trump allies in recent days. Trump had described her and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as “highly partisan and very corrupt”, the BBC reported. She is the only federal judge in Washington who has delivered sentences against defendants in cases related to the 6 January Capitol riot that are longer than the sentences that the DOJ asked for, according to NBC News.
According to DOJ, any judge of the US shall disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.