# Tanya Chutkan U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia since 2014. She presided over the federal election-subversion case against [[Donald Trump]], and she is the judge the vault's D.C. court pages keep returning to for firm case management and for sentences tougher than prosecutors asked for. ## Background Chutkan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1962. She was a trial lawyer at the D.C. Public Defender Service and then a litigation partner in private practice before Barack Obama nominated her. The Senate confirmed her 95–0 in June 2014. ## January 6 - **The riot cases.** Chutkan repeatedly sentenced January 6 defendants to *more* time than the government sought, and she said from the bench that the rioters had been loyal "to one man," not to the Constitution. When Trump pardoned about 1,500 defendants on his first day back in office, much of that work was undone ([[January 6 Capitol Attack]]). - **United States v. Trump.** She got [[Jack Smith]]'s four-count election case in August 2023 and set a March 2024 trial date. Trump's immunity appeal froze the case. [[Trump v. United States]] (July 1, 2024) sent it back with a new immunity framework. She unsealed Smith's evidence brief in October 2024, weeks before the election. After Trump won, Smith moved to dismiss under the Justice Department's policy against prosecuting a sitting President, and she granted the dismissal **without prejudice on November 25, 2024** ([[Trump Indictments Timeline]]). ## Since 2025 Chutkan has kept drawing cases about the second term's use of power: - **DOGE.** In February 2025 she declined to issue a temporary restraining order in the states' challenge to Elon Musk's authority over [[DOGE]]. She said the plaintiffs raised serious questions but had not yet shown the imminent harm needed for emergency relief. - **EPA climate grants.** In April 2025 she blocked the EPA's clawback of $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants. A divided D.C. Circuit panel reversed her in September 2025. - **The arch.** On September 4, 2026, when veterans sought to stop excavation at Memorial Circle, she ordered **48 hours' notice** before any excavation or construction ([[Independence Arch]]). Her record shows the same limits the vault documents on other district judges. She could manage a case, set its pace and unseal its record. She could not stop an election from ending it, or an appeals panel from reversing her ([[Judicial Independence]]). ## See also - [[Federal Judges Hub]] · [[James Boasberg]] · [[Ana Reyes]] · [[Timothy Kelly]] - [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] · [[Jack Smith]] · [[Trump v. United States]] · [[Trump Indictments Timeline]] - [[DOGE]] · [[Independence Arch]] · [[Judicial Independence]]