Judge Chutkan 'buries her face in her hands' in 'frustration' at Jan. 6 rioter sentencing
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan didn't flinch when guilty Jan. 6 participant Antony Vo claimed he was convicted in a "kangaroo court." She reportedly sentenced him to nine months.
"I've been called worse," she reportedly said, according to a lengthy thread posted by CBS News' Scott MacFarlane.
Chutkan is also presiding over former President Donald Trump's federal election subversion criminal case which is on ice pending a Supreme Court determination on his absolute immunity claims.
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In a testy exchange, MacFarlane recounts how 31-year-old Vo's defense attempted to push forward a narrative that in no way did he violate any conditions of his release when he attended a Jan. 6 protest outside a D.C. lockup.
Chutkan shot back, "Are you serious?"
Instead, Vo's defense tried to explain the event Vo attended as not so much a protest but a “prayer vigil.”
MacFarlane noticed when the defense tries to interject, Chutkan "buries her face in her hands [sic] in apparent frustration."
Chutkan clarified that Vo wasn’t at a “prayer session at the D.C. jail, but singing in support for those in pretrial detention for violent crimes.”
Politico's Kyle Cheney also noticed that Chutkan "seemed totally unmoved" to make ‘common cause’ with those who call the most violent J6 defendants "hostages" while officers testified to "nearly being killed that day."
Back on Sept. 22, Vo of Indiana was found guilty by a jury of disorderly conduct, entering the Capitol, and other charges.
Vo was among the many tips the feds received of the hundreds of Trump supporters breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by halting the 2020 vote tally count.
The FBI relied on photos and videos from Vo’s own Facebook and Instagram accounts putting him in Washington, D.C., and inside the Capitol building while the mob rushed the edifice.
Vo wrote in a conversation that “President [Trump] asked me to be here tomorrow so I am with my mom LOL.” In another, Vo said, “My mom and I helped stop the vote count for a bit.”
In another exchange, after Vo said police “pretty much opened up for us,” a friend expressed surprise.
Vo responded, “yeah they stood down and retreated after we clearly outnumbered them.”
He also admitted on social media that he and his mother “stormed” the Capitol. Vo’s mother, Annie, was arrested on misdemeanor charges.