Left: Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two in late July (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Pool, File). Center: Judge Juan Merchan (AP Photo/Seth Wenig). Right: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, POOL).
After teasing that a ruling would drop this week, Donald Trump’s hush-money trial judge on Wednesday declined, for the third time, to recuse himself from the case over his daughter’s political consulting work for Democrats, including the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan made short work of the demand that he step aside based on his daughter’s “long-standing” professional ties and “beneficial working relationship” with Democrats generally and Harris specifically.
“Stated plainly, Defendant’s arguments are nothing more than a repetition of stale and unsubstantiated claims,” he wrote, rejecting the argument that the “alleged conflict is more egregious now” that Harris is the presumptive nominee for president in the 2024 election race against Trump.
“[T]his Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” Merchan added. “Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”
The judge said the defense “provided nothing new” for him to consider, and assertions “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” didn’t move the ball.
In May 2023, an ethics panel found Judge Merchan’s “impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned” because of his daughter and Authentic Campaigns President Loren Merchan’s “business and/or political activities” and that he was “not ethically required to disclose them.” The judge issued his own ruling in August 2023, finding that “recusal would not be in the public interest” and that he was “certain in [his] ability to be fair and impartial.”
In April, after Trump posted about the judge’s daughter online, including her name and photo, Merchan expanded an existing gag, ordering the defendant to “refrain” from “making or directing others to make public statements” about “family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or cause others to materially interfere” with their work.
That part of the gag order remains in effect to this day.
More Law&Crime coverage: Trump still can’t go after hush-money judge’s daughter as lawsuit over what’s left of gag order fails — and threats to DA’s staff factored in
The defense most recently argued that Loren Merchan’s political consulting work for Harris had changed the calculus.
In late July, Trump lawyers said that Merchan’s “long-standing and extremely beneficial working relationship” with Harris was even more relevant now considering “changed circumstances,” namely Harris’ replacement of President Joe Biden at top of the Democratic ticket.
“Your Honor’s daughter has a long-standing relationship with Harris, including work for political campaigns,” the defense motion said. “She has obtained–and stands to obtain in the future–extensive financial, professional, and personal benefits from her relationship with Harris.”
“Your Honor’s daughter was publicly critical of President Trump’s use of Twitter–a central issue in the pending Presidential immunity motion–and described a discussion on that topic with Your Honor that evidences prejudgment of President Trump’s official-acts arguments,” Trump attorneys added.
As Law&Crime noted, Authentic Campaigns’ website lists Kamala Harris for President at the top of its client list.
In addition, blurb under Loren Merchan’s name on the website says she has “managed paid media campaigns for substantial organizations such as UltraViolet, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Voto Latino as well as for venerable candidates like Senators Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, earning several awards for her unique strategy and execution as well as her work reaching underrepresented communities.”
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (D) had countered that Trump’s “vexatious and frivolous” third recusal bid should fail just as the others did, since “overheated, hyperbolic rhetoric” is no substitute for actual proof that the judge can’t be impartial and fair.
In comment to Law&Crime, the Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that Merchan — “a Biden-Harris donor” — remains “highly-conflicted” and “has proved to be biased against President Trump and beholden to not only Democrat partisan interests, but also to the glaring financial interests of an immediate family member.”
“The acting Justice has consistently and recklessly displayed his personal bias against President Trump throughout the case, including issuing an illegal, unconstitutional, and election-interfering Gag Order against the President and his campaign, and admitting constitutionally prohibited ‘evidence’ at trial,” Cheung said, alluding to Trump’s still-pending motion to set aside the 34 falsification of business records guilty verdicts in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity decision in Trump v. United States.
“The Highly-Conflicted Judge should have long ago recused himself from this case. The whole Witch Hunt was rotten from the start and it should now be dismissed entirely as the partisan hoax that it is,” he added. “President Trump will continue to fight this scam, and will always do all he can to save this great country from the dangerously liberal Harris-Biden mess.”
Read the judge’s ruling here.
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