Judge Points Finger at Trump In Blistering Order Denying Trump’s Demand To Keep Jury From Hearing About Jan. 6 Riot

Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan pointed the finger at former President Donald Trump in a blistering order denying a motion to strike mentions of January 6 from his election cromes trial.

Judge Chutkan is presiding in the election crimes case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, and issued an order Friday in which she denied Trump’s motion “to Strike Inflammatory Allegations From the Indictment.”

In concluding her order, Judge Chutkan threw in an aside about Trump’s own “inflammatory and unsupported accusations” against President Joe Biden, and referenced the potential for prejudice “generated by the defendant”:

Defendant’s sixteen-page Reply In Support of the Motion, despite making numerous inflammatory and unsupported accusations of its own, see, e.g., ECF No. 156 at 7 (“President Biden directed the Department of Justice to prosecute his leading opponent for the presidency through a calculated leak to the New York Times.”), devotes only a single paragraph to the prejudice requirement.

His sole argument is that even if the jury does not receive a copy of the indictment, “[v]oluminous evidence exists here that the jury pool has been, and continues to be, exposed to the Indictment and its inflammatory and prejudicial allegations, through media coverage relating to the case.” Id. at 16. But Defendant fails to cite even one example of that evidence. In any event, the voir dire process will allow the court to examine and address the effects that pretrial publicity, including any generated by Defendant, has had on the impartiality of potential jurors.

When trial begins, the court will also take steps to screen from the jury any irrelevant and prejudicial material that either party seeks to introduce. Moreover, before the jurors deliberate, the court will instruct them on the actual charges and the evidence they may consider in their deliberations. See United States v. Empire Bulkers Ltd., 583 F. Supp. 3d 746, 760 (E.D. La. 2022) (providing that jury instructions would “make clear to [jurors] what defendants are actually charged with” and “the verdict form will not ask the jury to consider issues for which defendants have not been charged”). This too will prevent “potential prejudice from the alleged surplusage.”

For these reasons, Defendant’s Motion to Strike Inflammatory Allegations from the Indictment, ECF No. 115, is hereby DENIED.

Trump faces four felony charges under Smith’s indictment against Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

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