One of the Left’s most fervent wishes this election season is for Donald Trump to be sitting in jail on November 5. They would like to see the former president be sentenced to a lengthy prison term as a result of his spurious conviction on 34 felonies in New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s court in May in connection to so-called hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
But some groups want to know more about Merchan’s finances and alleged conflict of interests in the case. America First Legal originally asked for financial disclosures from Merchan in early June, but has yet to hear from the judge or the Empire State.
“The law is clear that judicial financial disclosures must be released to the public. New York’s highest court has stated that such disclosures are necessary for parties before the courts to get a fair shake,” said AFL’ s Vice President Dan Epstein in a statement. “The public needs to know what Judge Merchan is hiding or even if he failed to file financial disclosures at all. This is especially important given the fact that Merchan appears to have engaged in unlawful campaign contributions and is on the precipice of criminally sentencing the former President of the United States.”
“Fundamental fairness dictates a resolution of America First Legal’s suit in its favor,” Epstein concluded.
America First has filed a lawsuit over what they call Merchan’s “manifest political bias” against Trump in the controversial “hush money” conviction. Much of Merchan’s perceived bias against Trump stems from the fact that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is the president of Authentic Campaigns, a left-wing political consultancy firm that opposes Trump and promotes candidates including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
AFL claims that Authentic Campaigns generated significant revenue — “at least $93 million in campaign donations,” according to the suit — by using Trump’s legal troubles against him. Merchan and the trial were obviously a part of that, bringing into question the judge’s impartiality in the high-profile case.
According to the lawsuit, “Justice Merchan made numerous bizarre and legally inexplicable rulings in favor of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and against President Trump prior to and throughout the trial in the Criminal Matter, which led to a widely condemned guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.”
AFL doesn’t believe Merchan can be fair with his judgements in the trial given his history of financially supporting causes in opposition to Trump, including the Biden campaign and the left-wing political group “Stop Republicans.” They further believe such donations should have disqualified Merchan from presiding in the Trump case.
Merchan is scheduled to announce sentencing for the Trump case on September 18. AFL claims that Merchan’s insistence on continuing to preside over the case “undermines public confidence in the fair and impartial administration of justice.”
AFL is not the only entity looking into improprieties surrounding the entire hush-money saga.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is looking for answers regarding the Department of Justice’s culpability in the matter and “to what extent the prosecutions of a prominent presidential candidate are being coordinated by the federal government.”
Meanwhile the AFL is specifically concentrating on Merchan’s reticence to provide the financial disclosures as required.
“This is not a close case, nor a complicated one — the Commission is legally required
to produce the Requested Disclosures for inspection — full stop,” the lawsuit states.
Is Merchan hiding the financial disclosures as the AFL suggests? If so, any punishment he renders against Trump on September 18 should be immediately called into question.
