News
What to know about Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case
Manhattan Prison Courtroom is seen in New York, Friday, March. 31, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Yuki Iwamura/AP
Manhattan Prison Courtroom is seen in New York, Friday, March. 31, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
Now that former President Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in connection to a hush-money fee made to grownup movie actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, consideration will little question flip to his arraignment and potential trial.
The choose dealing with the weird and historic case is Juan Manuel Merchan, a veteran of the New York courtroom system who has spent greater than 15 years on the bench and isn’t any stranger to high-profile prosecutions — notably these involving Trump and his associates.
That is maybe Merchan’s most noteworthy case but, because it’s the primary time {that a} former U.S. president has ever been charged with against the law.
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, is anticipated to look in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday for his arraignment.
The previous president has already aired his opinion in regards to the choose presiding over his case, saying in a publish on Fact Social final week that Merchan “hates me” and that the choose “railroaded” Trump’s former chief monetary officer into pleading responsible in a tax fraud case.
Merchan has overseen different instances associated to Trump
Final 12 months, Merchan oversaw the closely-watched legal tax fraud case in opposition to Trump’s firm, which was in the end discovered responsible by a Manhattan jury. Trump himself was not a defendant in that case.
Two enterprise entities managed by Trump have been discovered responsible of 17 counts of tax fraud and falsifying enterprise data and have been ordered to pay the utmost penalty of $1.61 million.
Through the proceedings, Merchan shut down the suggestion from the Trump Group’s authorized workforce that the case was a politically motivated prosecution in opposition to the previous president and informed attorneys to give attention to the particular fees, CBS Information reported.
“I can’t permit you in any option to carry up a selective prosecution declare, or declare that is some type of novel prosecution,” Merchan mentioned.
Former Trump Group chief monetary officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded responsible within the case and served as a star witness for the prosecution. Merchan sentenced him to 5 months in jail, and the choose mentioned he would have handed down a harsher sentence if he hadn’t already agreed to the plea deal, Politico reported.
Merchan can also be overseeing a legal case in opposition to former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who’s dealing with fraud and cash laundering fees associated to a former charity that promised to assist construct a wall alongside the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not responsible.
Merchan is a veteran of the New York authorized system
In response to the New York Legislation Journal, Merchan has been an performing justice of the New York Supreme Courtroom since 2009.
“He is a critical jurist, good and even tempered,” Manhattan protection lawyer Ron Kuby informed NBC Information. “He isn’t a type of judges who yells at legal professionals, and is characterised as a no-nonsense choose. However he is at all times accountable for the courtroom.”
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a lawyer who beforehand labored within the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace supervising instances Merchan oversaw, informed CNN that Trump seemingly would not assist his case by publicly criticizing the choose.
Merchan “would not let the prosecutors or the defendants create any points in his courtroom. He would not let a media circus or every other type of circus occur. I do not suppose Donald Trump attacking him and threatening him goes to bode very nicely for him within the courtroom,” Agnifilo mentioned.
“The choose is the type of choose the place he’ll ignore it and never maintain it in opposition to Donald Trump. He isn’t vindictive in any manner like that.”
Merchan was beforehand a household courtroom choose, a New York Assistant Legal professional Basic and an assistant district lawyer for New York County.
He graduated from Baruch Faculty in 1990 and earned his legislation diploma from Hofstra College in 1994.