The judge assigned Tuesday to handle special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election case against former President Donald Trump poured thousands of dollars into Barack Obama’s campaign coffers, records show.
Trump faced an indictment at the hands of a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday on four new charges related to his alleged efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election and incite the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill in 2021. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will handle the case, was an Obama appointee in 2014 and contributed roughly $4,300 to his presidential campaign and victory fund combined between 2008 and 2012, according to campaign finance disclosures reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION INCANDESCENT LIGHTBULB BAN TAKES EFFECT
Chutkan’s donations were made while she worked at Boies Schiller Flexner, a major law firm with over a dozen offices across the United States. She also in 2008 gave $250 to the campaign for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), though the Federal Election Commission database doesn’t list her backing any federal candidates after September 2012.
The Obama-ties are sure to propel Republicans to further allege that the indictment and case are doomed as politically motivated, as the GOP continues to further the idea that the DOJ and intelligence agencies have been weaponized against disfavored speech among conservatives. Trump was ordered to appear for his arraignment on Tuesday in D.C. district court and is expected to plead not guilty to the four charges.
He is accused of 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, according to the indictment.
Trump said in a statement Tuesday that the charges were “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election.”
John Lauro, an attorney for Trump, referred to the indictment as “an attack on free speech and political advocacy.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Chutkan has been involved in another Trump-related case before and notably denied a request from the former president in 2021 seeking to block the National Archives from providing records on the Capitol riot to the since-defunct House select committee probing the events of that day.
“Plaintiff does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President’s judgment. His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity,’” wrote Chutkan in her prior opinion.
