Jamaican Judge Tanya Chutkan – who is she?

The Former United States President, Donald J. Trump now faces a third set of charges, in the United States Federal Court, after a grand jury handed up another indictment against him on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.

The indictment alleges that Mr. Trump undertook “criminal schemes” to undermine the results of the 2020 election. Trump will face charges for four felony counts, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against the right to vote and have one’s vote counted.

Assigned to the historic and high-profile case is Washington D.C. Judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, a native of Kingston, Jamaica. Younger Tanya Chutkan attended St. Andrew High School for Girls. Chutkan was also trained as a classical dancer in Jamaica. She later migrated to the United States and attended college in Washington, D.C. Judge Tanya Chaukan received her bachelor’s degree in economics from George Washington University and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an Associate Editor of the Law Review and a Legal Writing Fellow.

After law school, she worked in private practice for three years, then later joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Services, there she worked as a trial attorney and supervisor. During her tenure at the office of the Public Defense Services, she argued several appellate cases and tried over thirty (30) cases, including numerous felony matters. Some eleven years later, Judge Tanya Chutkan joined the law firm Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP. At this stage of her career, she specialized in litigation and white-collar criminal defense. According to her office, judge Chutkan clientele included antitrust class action plaintiffs, as well as individuals and corporate defendants involved in complex state and federal litigation.

Judge Chutkan was a member of the Steering Committee for the Criminal and Individual Rights Section of the District of Columbia Bar from 1996 – 2000. She is also a frequent lecturer on trial techniques, and she has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is an experienced jurist, she was confirmed by the Senate 95-0 after being appointed by former President, Barack Obama to the US District Court in the District of Columbia in June 2014.

As a district judge, Chutkan previously rejected an effort by Donald Trump to block the release of documents to the House committee investigating the January. 6, Capitol riot. Against this former President Trump was summoned to appear in court before Judge Chutkan in Washington, D.C., for his latest indictment. This unprecedented circumstance will now bear witness to the former president facing Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 28, 2023, as a defendant against the United States.

The alleged scheme includes enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors” targeting several states, using the Justice Department to conduct “fake election crime investigations” enlisting the vice president to “alter the election results” and doubling down on false claims as the January 6 Riot ensued. The Special Council, Jack Smith, who brought on the inditement called the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capital “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.” Judge Tanya Chutkan was randomly assigned to Trump’s case report stated.