The judge out of New York who is slated to oversee the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump was a donor to the campaign of Trump’s top rival, President Joe Biden, throughout the 2020 campaign.
Records from the Federal Election Commission have brought to light the fact that Judge Juan Merchan issued a donation of $35 to Democratic causes back in 2020, including a donation of $15 that was issued directly to the Biden campaign and $10 that went to another leftist group which was focused on “resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy,” explained a report from The New York Post. The discovery of the donations has caused even Left-leaning legal groups to put forth questions regarding the ethical implications of Merchan’s Democratic contributions.
“While the amounts here are minimal, it’s surprising that a sitting judge would make political donations of any size to a partisan candidate or cause,” stated one former federal prosecutor that is now a senior legal analyst for CNN, Elie Honig.
The former president has previously made reference to Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge” that ended up being “hand-picked” by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Merchant is the very same judge that sat for one case earlier this year where the Trump Organization ended up being found guilty on a total of 17 counts that included charges of falsifying business records and conspiracy.
Trumps has also been known to accuse Merchan of being highly biased politically by nodding to the judge’s daughter Loren Merchan, whose firm has done work for a number of top Democrats such as Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Trump was officially arrested this past Tuesday and slammed with charges of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his alleged hush money payments handed over to Stormy Daniels during throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, securing his place in history as the first ex-president to be charged with a crime. He chose to plead not guilty to all charges issued against him and is not scheduled to make an appearance in the courtroom until at least the end of the year.
In the wake of the unsealing of Trump’s indictment, a number of critics slammed Bragg for putting together a shockingly weak case against the former Republican figurehead as a means to curry political favors.
