NEW YORK (AP) – Within hours of his historic appearance this spring, Donald Trump aimed his anger at the judge, complaining that he is “a judge who hates Trump” with a family full of “Trump haters “.
On Friday, the former president’s lawyers doubled down on those criticisms, demanding that Judge Juan Manuel Merchan recuse himself from his criminal case in New York City over what they say is anti-Trump bias and a conflict of interest. stemming from his daughter’s work for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals.
Trump’s lawyers allege that Merchan, a respected Manhattan criminal court lawyer, tipped the scales in two other Trump-related cases by engaging in plea negotiations for Trump’s longtime finance chief. time and demanding that he testify against Trump’s company in exchange for a five-month period. prison sentence
Trump’s lawyers, Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, also asked Merchan to explain three political donations totaling $35 that were made to Democratic causes on his behalf during the 2020 election cycle.
In the New York case, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charges relate to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that Trump had extramarital sexual encounters. He has denied wrongdoing.
Merchan did not respond to questions from The Associated Press asking him to confirm or deny whether he is the person who made the donations, which include $15 to President Joe Biden’s anti-Trump campaign, according to campaign finance records. federal campaign. Such contributions are usually prohibited under court rules.
The former president’s criminal case is “historic and it is important that the people of New York State and this nation have confidence that the legal counsel who presides over it is impartial,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in what is known as a recusal motion.
The recusal decision rests with Merchan himself, who previously rejected such a request when Trump’s company was on trial. Trump’s lawyers could also be making a move to raise the issue on appeal if he is convicted. Along with his motion, Trump’s lawyers filed 42 pages of what they claim is evidence of Merchan’s political bias.
The hush money case remains in state court as Trump’s lawyers seek to transfer it to federal court, which would also remove Merchan from the judicial equation. A federal judge has scheduled a June 27 hearing on that request.
A message was left with Merchan seeking comment. A spokesman for the New York state court system, Lucian Chalfen, said that because the case is pending before the judge, “it would be inappropriate for any further comment.”
Merchan has been respectful and extremely accommodating in his limited interactions with Trump, refusing to issue a gag order even as the former president continued to pillory him, District Attorney Alvin Bragg and others involved in the case. In a recent hearing, Merchan said he was “bending over backwards” to make sure he didn’t limit Trump from having “every possible opportunity to advance his candidacy.”
Trump’s recusal motion expands the criticism he has leveled at Merchan and his family in statements and at his Truth Social platform.
Merchan’s daughter, Loren, is a political consultant whose firm has worked on campaigns for prominent Democrats including Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump, the leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2024, could face Biden again as he seeks a return to the White House. He and his allies have taken advantage of Merchan’s political ties to present his prosecution as part of a Democrat-led “witch hunt.”
“I have a judge who hates Trump with a wife and a family who hates Trump whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,” Trump said in a speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate, hours after his appearance on April 4.
Among other criticisms of Trump, he has claimed Merchan “railroaded” former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg into pleading guilty last summer and acted “viciously” in presiding over the trial of the company, which ended with a tax fraud conviction last December.
Merchan was heavily involved in the negotiations that led Weisselberg to plead to tax avoidance charges on perks including a Manhattan apartment and luxury cars. Merchan said he wished he could impose a tougher penalty after hearing Weisselberg testify, especially when he talked about his wife getting $6,000 for a no-show job to qualify for Social Security benefits while her husband he earned a lot of money.
Those cases were preludes to Trump’s historic impeachment.
Trump’s case ended up in Merchan’s courtroom because of a rotation in which judges assigned to oversee grand juries handle any cases that arise from them, according to the court system. Merchan also often handles financial cases and runs Manhattan’s mental health court, where some defendants have the opportunity to resolve their cases with treatment and supervision.
Merchan, 60, immigrated from Colombia at age 6 and grew up in New York City. The first member of his family to go to college, he went to school and received his law degree from Hofstra University in 1994.
He was a Manhattan prosecutor and worked in the state attorney general’s office before then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him as a family court judge in 2006. Three years later, Merchan was assigned to a court of first instance, which in New York is called the Supreme Court. .
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