U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Wednesday she will not recuse herself from Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington, rejecting the former president’s claims that her past comments cast doubt on whether she can be fair.

Chutkan, who was nominated to the bench by President Obama and randomly assigned to Trump’s case, said in her written decision that she sees no reason to step aside. In the case, which will go to trial in March, the Republican is accused of illegal plans to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

There is a high bar for recusal, and legal experts had widely viewed Trump’s request as a gamble aimed at publicly undermining the case’s legitimacy, which could only sour the relationship between the judge and defense in court .

Lawyers for Trump did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

In seeking to rescind Chutkan, defense attorneys cited statements she made during two sentencing hearings of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying she appeared to suggest Trump deserved to be prosecuted and held accountable to be called. They said the comments suggested a bias against him that could taint the proceedings.

Chutkan strongly objected to these characterizations of her comments.

“It is worth noting that the court never took the position the defense ascribed to it: that former President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” Chutkan wrote. And the defense doesn’t cite a single example in which the court has ever uttered these words or anything like it.

It is the second time that Trump has unsuccessfully tried to remove a judge from one of the criminal cases against him. Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s hush-money criminal case in New York, rejected similar demands that he step aside and said he is confident in his ability to be fair and impartial.

Chutkan has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of suspects charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and interrupted Congress’ certification of Biden’s election victory. Trump, the early frontrunner in the polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has attacked the judge on social media as he tries to argue the prosecution is politically motivated.

Federal Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s team said there was no valid basis to remove Chutkan from the case. Like Chutkan, Smith’s team said she never said Trump was legally or morally responsible for the events of January 6, or that he deserved to be punished.

Chutkan wrote in her order that while denial is a valid step if warranted, judges should not step aside without cause, as she suggested Trump’s lawyers asked her to do.

Trump’s team had pointed in their recusal bid to a Jan. 6 defendant sentencing hearing in which Chutkan said the rioters had “blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day. Chutkan wrote in her decision Wednesday that she merely established the undisputed fact that Trump was free, but went no further.

Chutkan is also considering a request from Smith’s team for a strict silence order that would prevent Trump from making inflammatory and intimidating comments about witnesses, lawyers and other people involved in the case. Trump’s lawyers objected to that request this week.

Chutkan has scheduled the trial to begin on March 4, 2024, over strong objections from lawyers who said that would not give them enough time to prepare. The case in Washington federal court is one of four criminal cases facing the former president as he tries to win back the White House.