OPINION:
“THIS SCAM ‘RUSHED’ TRIAL IS BEING PRESIDED OVER BY POSSIBLY THE MOST CONFLICTED JUDGE IN JUDICIAL HISTORY,” former President Donald Trump declared with characteristic understatement via Truth Social. Mr. Trump added that Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan “MUST BE REMOVED FROM THIS HOAX IMMEDIATELY.”
It is debatable whether Judge Merchan is “the most conflicted judge” ever. But he surely belongs in the Conflicted Jurist Hall of Fame.
In fact, Judge Merchan is awash in conflicts of interest in Mr. Trump’s “hush money” trial.
First, the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democratic Party activist. Before her LinkedIn page went private, it listed her as the director of digital persuasion for the Kamala Harris for the People campaign in 2019.
Loren Merchan has been president of Authentic Campaigns, a digital marketing and communications operation whose clients include left-wing causes and Democratic governors, congressmen, senators and presidential candidates. The company’s website invokes Mr. Trump’s name to generate new business.
“Unlike Kari Lake, who shamelessly pandered to Donald Trump and embraced dangerous and divisive rhetoric, Katie Hobbs is committed to putting sanity over chaos,” Authentic’s website states, “ultimately leading to her historic victory in the Arizona Governor race.”
Authentic’s fundraising ad for the Immigrant Justice Fund complains that “Extreme MAGA Republican Trump sidekick, Kari Lake, just launched her run for the U.S. Senate in the crucial swing state of Arizona.”
“In the end,” Authentic crows, “Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump and won many of the swing states we were hired to support the campaign in.”
Mr. Trump’s attorneys estimate that Authentic has scored $18 million from its clients since April 2023, when hard-left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Mr. Trump.
Under New York state’s Judiciary Law Article 2 § 14, Judge Merchan, Loren’s first-degree blood relative, should recuse himself since “he is related by consanguinity or affinity to any party to the controversy within the sixth degree.”
Second, even if this law included an “I don’t discuss business with my daughter” clause, Judge Merchan is a Democratic donor. According to CNN, the judge contributed $15 earmarked for Mr. Biden’s campaign and $10 each to the Progressive Turnout Project and its Stop Republicans PAC.
“$35?” Trump haters laugh. “You call that a donation?”
Well, visualize Hillary Clinton finally on trial for her countless crimes. Imagine her judge donated $15 to Mr. Trump in 2016 and $10 each to the Conservative Turnout Project and Stop Democrats.
Trump haters would stop laughing.
Third, unlike federal judicial assignments, the chief administrative judge picked Judge Merchan for Mr. Trump’s trial because of his supervision of other Trump-related cases. This needlessly deepens suspicions.
“There was not a random selection of a judge in this case, and there should have been,” former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Christopher Brennan told The Wall Street Journal. “He actually should be the last person selected, given the potential conflict.”
Here’s how these conflicts could unfold:
• “Once this rigged trial imprisons Trump,” Judge Merchan smiles to himself, “Biden soars, Democrats rally, Loren makes millions, and I get my commission. Man, will this be a great Christmas!”
• Judge Merchan tries his damnedest to be fair, but a tiny voice whispers within him, “Don’t make life tough for Loren.” He shuns the thought, but late at night, it returns like the lightest of breezes: “Don’t make life tough for Loren.”
• Aching to look impartial, Judge Merchan overcompensates and grants Mr. Trump’s every request. Prosecutors soon doubt that they can get a fair trial. (The reality is exactly the reverse: Judge Merchan has nixed Mr. Trump’s motions for the trial’s relocation from Democrat-packed Manhattan, ample notification of prosecution witnesses, and the First Amendment right to discuss this case unrestrained by gag orders.)
• Judge Merchan officiates with pristine evenhandedness. Still, the appearance of a conflict of interest causes half the country to consider this trial rigged, eroding faith in American justice even further.
Genuinely or apparently conflicted, Juan Merchan should yield to a judge who focuses strictly on the law, the evidence, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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