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 transition of power. Instead, the federal judge spent Tuesday afternoon in an empty courtroom with John Banuelos.
Banuelos, a talkative Chicagoan with a lengthy criminal record, is accused of firing a gun into the air while dangling from Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day scaffolding during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He is the only person whose is known to have shot a gun that day, except for the police officer who shot and killed a rioter who tried to enter the speaker’s lobby. Now Banuelos is hoping for a pardon from Trump, though he says that even if he doesn’t get one, at least “the guys” he’s been in jail with since his arrest will go free.
Banuelos spent 45 minutes appealing to Chutkan for a break, perhaps for release from custody in time for Christmas, and for her private advice on his case — a proposal she rejected as unethical. He criticized his court-appointed lawyer as a “public pretender,” suggested the chief prosecutor was only pursuing him for a paycheck and begged Chutkan to help him escape further punishment.
Chutkan responded with a hint of irony: “Federal judges have much less authority than you think.”
“Judges are not kings,” she said, quickly adding, “And neither are presidents.” It was an echo of the most famous line from a statement she issued in 2021, when she gave investigators access to Trump White House records on January 6. 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 impending 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 acknowledged for months that the fate of the case was almost entirely beyond her control; it was at the mercy of the appellate courts and ultimately electoral politics.
Last month, Chutkan quickly signed the dismissal papers. She opted against any unorthodox tactics that might have prolonged the outcome or forced further public statements.
Now Chutkan is one of several federal trial judges in Washington presiding over cases in which Jan. 6 suspects are trying to escape the consequences of the attack by invoking Trump’s promise to pardon many of them. Chutkan once said the rioters stormed the Capitol “out of loyalty to one man – not the Constitution.”
Banuelos used his rare face time with the judge to air a long list of grievances about the legal system, saying he viewed Chutkan as a kindred spirit more interested in justice than politics. He said that he could tell that she was a reader of the philosophy and treatises of Marcus Aurelius, and that she had his best interests at heart.
“I really believe in you,” Banuelos said shortly after receiving Chutkan’s approval to find a new public defender.
For Chutkan, the stormy hearing also seemed like a return to normalcy. She jousted with Banuelos, keeping pace with his rapid complaints. Noting that she too was once “a former public pretender,” she defended the lawyers who defamed Banuelos. She used his complaints to educate him about the roles of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys in the system.
“It is my job to administer justice. I am the referee,” she said. “Your attorney…represents you and only you.”
She could not engage in private conversation with him, she noted, just as she would not with the accuser, except in exceptional circumstances that are first publicly explained and justified. Ultimately, Chutkan reminded Banuelos, it was her decision to jail him pending 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, did not consider “my children” or “my dog” in their efforts to detain him before trial, Chutkan told him that this was not Lederer’s job was.
“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 attorney’s political beliefs have no bearing on how hard he will fight for you. … It’s not some kind of political litmus test.”
Chutkan noted that Banuelos’ happiness seemed to stem from the belief that the 2024 election results should somehow free him from his persecution.
“Even if I don’t get pardoned, they will release the boys,” Banuelos said. “A divided country cannot stand. Enough is enough.”
