by Sharon Rondeau
(May 30, 2024) — Presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, who also served as the nation’s 45th president, addressed the public Thursday morning upon arriving at the Manhattan courthouse where a trial for his alleged falsification of business records has been ongoing for six weeks.
Jury deliberations commenced Wednesday during which the members asked to review Judge Juan Merchan’s instructions and witness testimony from disgraced and disbarred attorney Michael Cohen and David Pecker, former National Enquirer publisher.
Cohen served as Trump’s personal attorney during the 2016 campaign, when a conspiracy to falsify a reimbursement record to influence the election occurred, according to the 34-count grand-jury indictment issued last year.
Trump has consistently denied all of the charges. As he has said throughout the process, on Thursday he termed Merchan “corrupt” and decried the charges against the backdrop of actions other prominent political figures have taken such as Hillary Clinton.
More than several legal analysts, including some at left-leaning networks, have stated the “crime” of which Trump is supposedly accused has not been made clear, a fact Trump emphasized as he read from their various public statements Thursday morning.
Many outlets have not reported Merchan is an “acting” judge only who has managed to preside over numerous cases involving Trump; the Trump Organization; several of its officers, including 75-year-old Allen Weisselberg, who is serving a second prison sentence at Rikers Island; and the case against former Trump strategic adviser Steve Bannon, which also resulted in a conviction.
Merchan’s daughter is president of an organization, Authentic Campaigns, which raises funds for Democrat politicians and special-interest groups and has reportedly profited handsomely from the current Trump trial.
Authentic openly supports the “Biden/Harris” presidential ticket. Its “full client list” includes United We Dream; Sen. Angus King (I-ME); Rep. Adam Schiff, a vocal Trump opponent who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat; Rep. Dan Goldman, who as a private attorney led House Democrats’ hearings leading to Trump’s first impeachment; and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
On April 3, 2023, the AP reported of Merchan:
He got Trump’s case because of a rotation in which judges are assigned to oversee grand juries and any cases that arise from them, according to the court system. Merchan also often handles financial cases.
Early last week, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY21) filed an ethics complaint against Merchan for allegedly being “in clear violation of section 100.3(E)(1)(d)(iii) of the Rules of Judicial Conduct for the New York State Unified Court System as his family has enriched itself through anti-Trump fundraising mentioning this case directly.”
On Tuesday as a private individual, Stefanik filed a complaint with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct requesting an investigation into Merchan’s assignment to multiple Trump-associated cases.
“I just filed an official misconduct complaint with the New York State Unified Court System related to the ‘random’ assignment of Acting Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan, a Biden donor whose daughter is fundraising millions off his unprecedented work, to criminal cases against President Donald J. Trump, his companies, and his allies,” Stefanik posted on “X,” formerly Twitter.
Her letter reads, in part:
I am writing to alert you to potential misconduct by Justices and employees of the Supreme Court, Criminal Term, New York County.
The potential misconduct pertains to the repeated assignment of Acting Justice Juan Merchan, a Democrat Party donor, to criminal cases related to President Donald J. Trump and his allies. Acting Justice Merchan currently presides over the criminal case against President Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Acting Justice Merchan also presided over the criminal trial against the Trump Organization and will be presiding over the criminal trial of Steve Bannon, a senior advisor in President Trump’s White House and a prominent advocate for President Trump.1
The website for the Supreme Court, Criminal Term, New York County does not provide a comprehensive list of every justice and acting justice sitting in the courthouse, but based on the courtroom directory there are at least 24 sitting justices on the court.2 Acting Justice Merchan is not even listed among them, one assumes, because of his status as an acting justice.
Section 200.11(c) of the Uniform Rules for New York State Trial Courts requires that criminal actions be assigned to a judge “pursuant to a method of random selection authorized by the Chief Administrator.” If justices were indeed being randomly assigned in the Criminal Term, the probability of two specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is quite low, and the probability of three specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is infinitesimally small. And yet, we see Acting Justice Merchan on all three cases.
This is the same Acting Justice Merchan who, in violation of New York State Code of Judicial Conduct 100.5(h), donated to President Biden’s 2020 campaign, along with the Progressive Turnout Project and its “Stop Republicans” subsidiary.3 It’s also the same Acting Justice whose daughter is a political consultant working for prominent Democrats, whose firm stands to profit greatly if Donald Trump is convicted.4
“It’s a disgrace…the millions and millions that have been spent on this case…it’s a very sad day for New York,” Trump continued his remarks at 9:24 a.m. EDT.
He concluded his brief remarks by pledging to make additional comments in the “evening” after what he predicted would “be a long day.”
As he spoke, his son Eric, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, campaign communications director Karoline Leavitt and legal spokeswoman Alina Habba could be seen in the background.