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MAGA figures and trolls attack judges in Trump cases in Colorado and DC

Right-wing media are attacking Colorado Judge Sarah Wallace and D.C. Judge Tanya Chutkan as they preside over legal cases involving former President Donald Trump and his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election.

Chutkan has been attacked before: Right-wing media unleashed a firestorm of criticism when she was announced as presiding over the case, calling her politically motivated and demanding she recuse herself. More recently, Trump himself attacked Chutkan after she reinstated a gag order on his commentary about the case.

  • Wallace and Chutkan are presiding over two Trump cases

    • Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace is presiding over a 14th Amendment case against Trump, which will decide whether Trump should be disqualified from having his name on the ballot in the state in 2024 over his alleged role on January 6. [Reuters, 10/30/23]

    • U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing Trump’s litigation in D.C. and recently reinstated a gag order on the former president following a temporary freeze after Trump appealed. [CNN, 10/30/23; Axios, 10/20/23

  • Right-wing media have attacked Colorado Judge Wallace 

    • Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire suggested that Wallace’s decision to allow a lawsuit regarding Trump's eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment to move forward could result in another civil war. Knowles remarked: “Civil wars happen. And the liberals would appear to be cultivating the conditions to make it much more likely.” [Media Matters, 10/24/23]

    • On X, Fox News host Mark Levin shared an NBC News article about the case, adding, “We have a real problem in America with tyrannical leftwing judges who run their courtrooms like political circuses.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • On his show War Room, Steve Bannon called Wallace “radical” while his guest, Mike Davis, a right-wing judicial activist, called on her to recuse herself from the case. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 10/30/23]

    • Later on, Bannon claimed the case is happening in a kangaroo court that’s “every bit as deadly as the Nazi judges and Stalin show trial.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 10/30/23]

    • Davis also made an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle and called Wallace “biased” and cited a $100 donation to the Colorado Turnout Project she made prior to taking the bench. He went on: “I think she’s going to rule for these Democrat operatives and try to take President Trump off the ballot here in Colorado. And I think that Democrats are going to try to use that precedent to go to other states like Minnesota and Michigan. So, it looks like the Supreme Court of the United States is going to have to step in here and fix this eventually.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/30/23; Colorado Politics, 10/30/23]

    • On X, Mike Davis wrote: “New Denver District Judge Sarah Wallace, a Democrat Donor, Commits Reversible Error By Refusing to Recuse from Trump January 6th Case After Donating to Anti-Trump January 6th PAC.” He went on to ask, “Will the public reasonably believe she can give Trump a fair January 6th-related bench trial after she donated to an anti-Trump January 6th PAC ? The answer is clearly not.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Davis also posted on X a clip of his appearance on War Room, adding, “Anyone with a brain can see that she can’t objectively be fair to President Trump given her past donation to a leftist cause.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Replying to Davis’ post, bigoted social media personality Mike Cernovich wrote, “Judges are overtly flaunting the law as a show of force. It’s Stalin era tactics.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23

    • On GETTR, Bannon wrote: “Crazed Left Wing Judge and Radical Secretary of State for Colorado Attempt to Remove President Trump from  Ballot in 2024.” [GETTR, 10/30/23]

    • Davis joined Jack Posobiec on his show Human Events Daily and called Wallace “clearly biased,” adding, “No one in their right mind thinks that this judge is going to be fair.” Posobiec described Wallace as a “left-wing judge” and called the case “a bench trial,” referring to a type of trial with no jury. [Real America’s Voice, Human Events Daily, 10/30/23]

    • On X, previously known as Twitter, pro-Trump troll and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called Judge Wallace “another political hack” and “a MAJOR Trump-hater.” Loomer also went after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, calling her “a communist who was funded by George Soros.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Loomer also took aim at Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for not attacking Wallace, claiming she’s been “silent” about the case. She asked, “How come you don’t have any condemnation for Judge Sarah Wallace and the efforts to take Trump off the ballot in Colorado, which you supposedly ‘represent’ when you aren’t getting drunk on dates with Democrats?” In a separate post, Loomer said that if “Boebert is too dumb to see how this lawsuit will ultimately impact her race, then she doesn’t deserve to be in Congress.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23, 10/30/23]

    • In another post, Loomer described Wallace as “the radical Leftist judge overseeing the anti—Trump trial in Colorado.” She then claimed the case is “direct ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and “pure lawfare, orchestrated by partisan Democrats and their left-wing financiers to cheat the American electoral system and deprive the American voters of their rightful choice for a President.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23

    • The right-wing publication National Pulse ran a headline on an article about the lawsuit reading, “NOW: Soros’s ‘Kick Trump Off Ballot’ Case Begins, With Far-Left, Democrat Donor Judge.” [The National Pulse, 10/30/23]

    • Breitbart wrote: “Democrat-Appointed Colorado Judge Greenlights Effort to Kick Trump Off 2024 Ballot.” [Breitbart, 10/23/23]

    • Sean Spicer, former press secretary and communications director for Trump and current host of The Sean Spicer Show, wrote on X, “Talk about election interference.... Colorado judge paves way for trial on whether 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from office.” [Twitter/X, 10/26/23]

    • Right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley, or DC_Draino, complained on X that “Democrat” Wallace refused to recuse herself. He added, “FAKE SHOW TRIAL!” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • On X, Catturd wrote, “The reason Democrats are trying to get Trump off the ballot in Colorado is because cheating is the only way they can win elections. It’s really that simple.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

  • MAGA media figures and trolls have renewed attacks against D.C. Judge Chutkan

    • Users on 4chan have unleashed a barrage of racist images and antisemitic rhetoric against Judge Chutkan. [4chan, 10/31/23, 10/31/23, 10/30/23]

    • In a post on X, pro-Trump troll and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called Chutkan “the Obama appointed affirmative action poster child.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Fox News host Mark Levin posted on X calling Judge Chutkan “a disgrace.” He went on to argue, “The DC courts need to be broken up, its jurisdiction for high profile cases withdrawn, and the judicial seats and subject-matter jurisdictions should be moved to other parts of the country.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • On Fox News, host Laura Ingraham said, “The Democrats are getting a lot of help from federal Judge Tanya Chutkan.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/30/23]

    • Right-wing judicial activist Mike Davis called Chutkan an “obnoxiously partisan DC Obama judge” on X. [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Conservative commentator Julie Kelly also posted on X that “Chutkan shouldn’t be within 100 miles of this case given her inflammatory, biased, and inaccurate statements in court about Trump and Jan 6. But here we are.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]

    • Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit wrote in a headline, “Obama-Appointed Judge Chutkan Reinstates Gag Order on President Trump.” In the piece, Hoft describes her as the “Jamaican-born Obama- appointed Judge Tanya Chutkan.” [The Gateway Pundit, 10/29/23

    • On X, Tom Fitton of the conservative legal organization Judicial Watch reposted an earlier tweet of his in light of the reinstatement, saying, “Judge Chutkan has now effectively taken over Trump's presidential campaign.” [Twitter/X, 10/17/23]

    • In another post, Fitton called the developments in the case “election interference by the Biden regime and anti-Trump judge.....” [Twitter/X, 10/29/23]

    • Responding to a piece from Conservative Brief on the gag order, far-right political commentator Sebastian Gorka wrote, “This is no longer Republican vs Democrat. It's The People vs The Establishment. Good vs Evil.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/23]