Tanya Chutkan Nearly Presided Over Donald Trump’s Trial. Now Her Jan. 6 Defendants Await His Pardon.

Tanya Chutkan once thought she would spend much of 2024 presiding over an iconic moment in American history: the criminal trial of Donald Trump for conspiring to derail the transfer of power. Instead, the federal judge spent Tuesday afternoon in an empty courtroom with John Banuelos.

Banuelos, a chatty Chicagoan with a long rap sheet, is charged with firing a gun into the air while dangling from Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day scaffolding during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He is the only person known to have fired a gun that day other than the police officer who shot and killed a rioter attempting to breach the speaker’s lobby. Now, Banuelos is hoping for a pardon from Trump, though he says even if he doesn’t get one at least “the guys” he’s been in jail with since his arrest will go free.

For 45 minutes, Banuelos appealed to Chutkan for a break, perhaps a release from pretrial detention in time for Christmas, and for her private advice about his case — a proposition she rejected as unethical. He bashed his court-appointed lawyer as a “public pretender,” suggested the case’s lead prosecutor was just pursuing him for a paycheck and entreated Chutkan to help him escape further punishment.

Chutkan responded with a hint of knowing irony: “Federal judges have far less authority than you think.”

“Judges are not kings,” she said, adding quickly, “Neither are presidents.” It was an echo of the most famous line from a ruling she issued in 2021, when she permitted Jan. 6 investigators to access Trump’s White House records. That investigation helped lead to special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal charges against Trump — charges that Smith has now dropped in light of Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

Chutkan has said little since Trump prevailed in the 2024 election and Smith reluctantly asked her to dismiss the case. She has for months acknowledged that the fate of the case was almost entirely out of her control; it was at the mercy of appellate courts and, ultimately, electoral politics.

Last month, Chutkan quickly signed the paperwork granting the dismissal. She opted against any unorthodox tactics that might have prolonged the outcome or forced further public explanations.

Now, Chutkan is one of many federal trial judges in Washington who are presiding over cases in which Jan. 6 defendants are trying to escape consequences for the attack by invoking Trump’s pledge to pardon many of them. Chutkan once said the rioters stormed the Capitol “in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.”

Banuelos used his rare face-time with the judge to air a long list of grievances about the court system, saying he viewed Chutkan as a kindred spirit who is interested in justice rather than politics. He said he could tell she was a reader of philosophy and treatises by Marcus Aurelius, and that she had his best interests at heart.

“I believe in you for real,” Banuelos said shortly after getting Chutkan’s permission to seek a new public defender.

For Chutkan, the boisterous hearing also seemed like a return to normalcy. She jousted with Banuelos, keeping pace with his rapid-fire complaints. She noted that she, too, was once “a former public pretender” and defended the attorneys whom Banuelos maligned. She used his gripes to attempt to educate him about the role of judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers in the system.

“My job is to administer justice. I’m the umpire,” she said. “Your lawyer … represents you and only you.”

She couldn’t take a private meeting with him, she noted, just like she wouldn’t take one with the prosecutor except in exceptional circumstances that are first explained and justified publicly. Ultimately, Chutkan reminded Banuelos, it was her decision to put him in jail while awaiting trial and that his lawyer had zealously advocated for his release.

When Banuelos complained that the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebekah Lederer, didn’t factor in “my kids” or “my dog” in their efforts to detain him before trial, Chutkan told him it wasn’t Lederer’s job.

“Her job is to prosecute you,” Chutkan said.

Chutkan ended the hearing with a warning to Banuelos to give his next appointed attorney a chance without making “snap judgments about people.”

“You don’t have to share the same political beliefs as your lawyer,” Chutkan said. “Your lawyer’s political beliefs have no bearing on how hard they’ll fight for you. … It’s not some kind of political litmus test.”

Chutkan noted that Banuelos’ happiness appeared to stem from a belief that the 2024 election results should result in some kind of relief for him from his prosecution.

“Even if I don’t get pardoned, they’re going to free the guys,” Banuelos said. “A nation divided can’t stand. Enough is enough.”