D.C. judge handling Trump's trial has reputation of being the toughest on Jan. 6 defendants

Former President Donald Trump lucked out when U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon was randomly selected to handle the Mar-a-Lago documents case in Southern Florida. But his luck may have run out when U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was assigned to preside over his trial in Washington, D.C., on multiple counts of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Chutkan has previously tangled in court with Trump over events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In a procedural case, Chutkan ruled favorably on a request by the House Jan. 6 Select Committee to access Trump’s White House records. In her November 2021 ruling she wrote:  “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”

Among federal circuit court judges in D.C., Chutkan has handed down the harshest sentences to Jan. 6 defendants, The Associated Press reported. She is also the only federal judge in the district who has given longer sentences to Jan. 6 defendants than federal prosecutors had requested, NBC News reported.