WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Justice Department is challenging to disqualify the Washington judge presiding over the case charging him with .
Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith's team wrote in late Thursday that there was 鈥渘o valid basis鈥� for to recuse herself.
Trump's lawyers filed a long-shot motion earlier this week urging Chutkan to step aside, citing comments she made in separate sentencing hearings related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that they say taint the Trump proceedings and call into question whether she has already prejudged the Republican former president's guilt.
In , Chutkan told a defendant who was sentenced to more than five years in prison that he had 鈥渕ade a very good point鈥� that the 鈥減eople who exhorted鈥� and encouraged him 鈥渢o go and take action and to fight鈥� had not been charged. Chutkan added that she did not 鈥渕ake charging decisions鈥� and had no 鈥渋nfluence on that.鈥�
鈥淚 have my opinions,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut they are not relevant.鈥�
But the Justice Department said the Trump team had taken Chutkan's comments out of context and failed to show that she harbored any bias against the former president, who to Democrat Joe Biden and from him.
The Justice Department said the statements the Trump lawyers had cited show the judge simply doing her job 鈥� responding to, and rejecting, efforts to minimize their own culpability by pointing the finger at Trump, who had told his supporters to at a rally shortly before .
Chutkan did not say, prosecutors wrote, that Trump was legally or morally to blame for the events of Jan. 6 or that he deserved to be punished.
鈥淎lthough the defendant tries to claim otherwise, the Court鈥檚 statements about which he complains are core intrajudicial statements 鈥� statements that the Court made while performing its official duties, in direct response to the arguments before it, and which were derived from knowledge and experience the Court gained on the bench,鈥� the prosecutors wrote.
They added: 鈥淎s such, to mount a successful recusal claim based on the cited statements, the defendant must show that they display a deep-seated animosity toward him. The defendant cannot meet this heavy burden.鈥�
Trump's motion is unlikely to succeed given the high standard for recusal. to seek the recusal of a judge in a separate New York prosecution he faces was unsuccessful.
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Eric Tucker, The Associated Press
