U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is calling for an investigation into the “random” assignment of Acting Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan, the judge who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial.
The New York Republican filed a misconduct complaint on Tuesday with the inspector general of the New York State Unified Court System, calling into question the selection of Merchan to preside over the criminal case against Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“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,” Stefanik wrote in the judicial complaint.
🚨🚨🚨 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… pic.twitter.com/OsBjFc3qeI
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) May 28, 2024
The judge also oversaw the criminal trial against the Trump Organization in New York and will be presiding over the criminal trial of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon.
“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,” Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chairwoman, wrote.
Citing New York court rules, Stefanik noted that “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,” she contended.
The congresswoman noted Merchan’s political donations made through the Democratic Party’s online fundraising platform, ActBlue, by giving to the “Biden for President” campaign in 2020 and to the Progressive Turnout Project and Stop Republicans. Stefanik also pointed to Merchan’s daughter as “a political consultant working for prominent Democrats, whose firm stands to profit greatly if Donald Trump is convicted.”
“One cannot help but suspect that the ‘random selection’ at work in the assignment of Acting Justice Merchan, a Democrat Party donor, to these cases involving prominent Republicans, is in fact not random at all,” Stefanik contended, suggesting the assignments were made “intentionally” in order “to increase the chance that Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and Steven Bannon would ultimately be convicted.”
She called for an investigation into the “anomaly” and for the appropriate discipline to be used if anyone was involved in any “scheme” to get Merchan on the three cases.
Trump attorney Alina Habba also recently questioned if, Merchan was “randomly” chosen to oversee the cases of Bannon, Trump, and Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
Alina Habba: “Judge Merchan…has somehow randomly selected had Steve Bannon’s case, had Allen Weisselberg’s case…somehow, he randomly also gets Donald Trump. That’s not the way the system works. You assign a case randomly…but in the new America, under the Biden Regime, we… pic.twitter.com/xINfbn88NT
— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) May 22, 2024
