Trump's lawyers urged Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan to step aside from the case, alleging bias and a conflict of interest because his daughter is a Democratic political consultant.NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is demanding a new judge just days before his hush-money criminal trial is set to begin, rehashing longstanding grievances with the current judge in a long-shot, eleventh-hour bid to disrupt and delay the case.
Merchan didn't immediately rule. The decision is entirely up to him. If he were to exit, it would throw the trial schedule into disarray, giving Trump a long-sought postponement while a new judge gets up to speed. "This daisy chain of innuendos is a far cry from evidence" that Judge Merchan has a direct, personal or financial interest in reaching a particular conclusion, Colangelo wrote.Loren Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, which has collected at least $70 million in payments from Democratic candidates and causes since she helped found the company in 2018, records show.
On Wednesday, Merchan rejected the presumptive Republican nominee's request to delay the trial until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity claims he raised in another of his criminal cases. The judge has yet to rule on another defense delay request — this one alleging he won't get a fair trial because of"prejudicial media coverage."
Trump suggested, without evidence, that Merchan's rulings — including his decision to impose a gag order on Trump — were swayed by his daughter's consulting interests. He wrongly claimed that she had posted a social media photo showing him behind bars. Trump's attacks on Loren Merchan led the judge to expand the gag order to prohibit him from making public statements about his family.
Merchan rejected that request, writing last August that a state court ethics panel had found that Loren Merchan's work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said he was certain of his"ability to be fair and impartial" and said Trump's lawyers had"failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds.