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America First Legal filed a lawsuit against New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan on Wednesday for failing to turn over financial disclosures initially sought in June.
Merchan oversaw former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in which he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records regarding payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by then Trump attorney Michael Cohen prior to the 2016 general election.
The sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 18.
In June, America First Legal filed a request with the Ethics Commission for the New York State Court System seeking Merchan’s financial disclosure statements for the years 2018 to 2024.
In its lawsuit against Merchan and the Ethics Commission, the conservative law firm argued, “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 court filing noted, “In July 2023, the Commission on Judicial Conduct cautioned Justice Merchan for his improper political donations to the Biden campaign and ‘Stop Republicans.’”
Further, his daughter, Loren Merchan, is the president of Authentic Campaigns, a “‘Chicago-based progressive consulting firm’ that works with Democrat Party candidates, including President Biden and Vice President Harris,” AFL pointed out.
/1🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
We just sued Judge Merchan and the Ethics Commission for the NY Unified Court System for illegally concealing Judge Merchan’s financial disclosures from 2018-2024.
We requested these records in June under NY state law and have been unlawfully stonewalled: pic.twitter.com/Qpu41yglHl
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) September 5, 2024
Should Trump’s conviction be thrown out?
Yes: 98% (60 Votes)
No: 2% (1 Votes)
“And two of Authentic Campaigns’ top clients—Representative Adam Schiff and the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC—raised ‘at least $93 million in campaign donations’ while using President Trump’s New York indictments in their solicitation emails,” according to the complaint.
AFL attorneys identified some “bizarre and legally inexplicable rulings” Merchan made against Trump during the May trial that strongly suggested bias.
They included the failure to recuse himself in the first place, an “unconstitutional” gag order against Trump during the trial, allowing “admission of plainly inadmissible, irrelevant, and unfairly prejudicial testimony against President Trump,” and refusing to allow former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Bradley Smith to testify about campaign finance law, including whether the payment made to Daniels by Cohen constituted a political donation.
Other legal experts have also found Merchan’s jury instructions unconstitutional, because he told them that they could choose one of three underlying crimes in order to convict Trump of felony business record violations.
The law firm concluded, “Given the magnitude of the Criminal Matter and Justice Merchan’s readily apparent political bias, conflict, and partiality, public-interest organizations such as AFL have a keen interest in obtaining the Requested Disclosures and shining light on his finances.”
AFL vice president Dan Epstein said in a statement regarding the suit, “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.”
“The public needs to know what Judge Merchan is hiding or even if he failed to file financial disclosures at all,” Epstein continued.
“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,” he said.
Last month, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy predicted that Merchan will impose a prison sentence on Trump, but likely will either suspend it or allow Trump to post bail pending his appeal of the ruling.
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