U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is preparing to oversee Donald Trump's election interference trial, dismissed on Wednesday claims by the former president and his allies that Jan. 6 defendants are "hostages."
As the Associated Press reported, Chutkan's remarks came during the sentencing hearing of Anthony Vo, a 31-year-old Indiana man who has expressed little remorse for storming the U.S. Capitol with his mother.
Instead of victims, Chutkan said, Jan. 6 defendants are "being kept [in jail] because they are dangerous people."
Some 1,265 people have been charged in connection to the insurrection, with more than 450 accused of assaulting or resisting police and other government employees.
Trump, whose false and inflammatory claims of a stolen election helped spark the violence on Jan. 6, has continued to express strong support and even raised money for his imprisoned followers. "Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages," Trump said in January. "Release the J6 hostages, Joe [Biden]. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe."
Following Trump's lead, some Jan. 6 defendants have remained defiant. During his trial, Vo himself attended the so-called "Freedom Corner," a nightly vigil for defendants held outside their prison in Washington, D.C.. Chutkan ruled that attending the vigil was a violation of his release conditions.
Vo, who calls himself a "J6 wrongful convict" on social media, was contrite right before his sentencing, claiming that he was "sorry for everything" and "wasn't there to overthrow the democratic process or anything." But he was openly hostile in the wake of his conviction last year on four misdemeanors related to unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol. In a January post on X, Vo asserted that "there was zero jury of peers and 100% a kangaroo court."
Chutkan was unswayed by Vo's in-court change of heart, deciding his actions merited nine months behind bars. The judge has put a string of Capitol attackers behind bars over the last three years, overruling the comparatively mild sentencing recommendations of federal prosecutors. According to the Associated Press, she has described incarceration as an appropriate punishment for criminals who not only tried to overthrow the democratic process but also violently assaulted around 140 Capitol police officers.
Chutkan is slated to preside over Trump's own trial, which has been delayed as the Supreme Court hears his argument that he is immune to prosecution.
