Judge Juan Merchan’s Donations to Democrats Could Be Grounds for Ethics Investigation

Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s case in Manhattan, violated New York’s Code of Judicial Conduct by making three donations to Democrats in 2020, which could be grounds for an ethics investigation, according to several legal experts and former prosecutors.

Under Section 100.5 of the New York Code of Judicial Conduct, sitting judges cannot “directly or indirectly engage in any political activity.” Prohibited political activity includes “(h) soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution to a political organization or candidate.”

The New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics’s yearly-updated handbook makes this clear, stating:

A sitting judge may not make political contributions at any time, even to a U.S. presidential candidate or to a federal congressional candidate outside of New York State (Opinion 11-146; 22 NYCRR 100.5[A][1][h]).

Furthermore, the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct states that unless permitted by law, a judge shall not “solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or a candidate for public office.”

However, Merchan — a New York state judge — made three political donations in 2020, according to public Federal Election Commission records.

According to the FEC records, Merchan donated $15.00 to Biden for President — the campaign of Trump’s opponent, on July 26, 2020, via ActBlue.

On July 27, 2020, he donated $10.00 to Progressive Turnout Project, an organization dedicated to turning out Democrat voters, and $10.00 to Stop Republicans, a part of Progressive Turnout Project “dedicated to resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy,” also via ActBlue.

According to Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert and law professor at New York University, such donations are forbidden.

“The contribution to Biden and possibly the one to ‘Stop Republicans’ would be forbidden unless there is some other explanation that would allow them,” Gillers told CNN on Thursday.

Gillers told Breitbart News in an email on Wednesday that violations of the N.Y. Code of Judicial Conduct would be investigated by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and could potentially result in removal.

“Violations can lead to a warning, private discipline, public discipline and more serious sanctions like removal. Serious discipline (e.g. removal) is decided by the N.Y. Court of Appeals,” he said.

However, he told CNN that he thought the donation’s sums would be “viewed as trivial” and would “absolutely not” be grounds for a legal challenge or recusal.

Other legal experts disagreed.

Brett Tolman, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah and former counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Breitbart News that Merchan’s violation should lead to his investigation and recusal.

“This should facilitate a judicial misconduct investigation and the Judge should recuse because of such,” Tolman told Breitbart News on Wednesday.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, told CNN the donations may have created the “appearance of a conflict.”

“Judge Merchan has a reputation of being a fair down the middle judge, however, donating to a defendant’s political rival can cause the appearance of a conflict, even where there is none, and creates an unforced error, in this case involving Trump,” she said.

Tolman said the appearance of a conflict could necessitate a recusal.

“A judge has two issues to address which could necessitate a recusal. First, is to determine if there is an actual conflict and second, if not an actual conflict, the judge must determine if recusal is needed to ‘avoid the appearance of a conflict,'” he said, adding:

I believe under either analysis, Judge Merchan should recuse himself. He has direct conflict by making financial investment in the direct opponent of Trump, an announced candidate for President. Secondly, the appearance of conflict looms large in this case given the donations, prior cases against Trump, and his daughter’s conflicts.

On Tuesday, Breitbart News reported that Merchan’s adult daughter, Loren Merchan, is the president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a firm that runs digital campaigns for Democrats and worked on the Biden-Harris presidential campaign.

In a June 16, 2019, in a podcast episode reviewed by Breitbart News, Merchan discussed her work and mentioned she had a conversation with her father in which he said he hated that politicians used Twitter. At the time, Trump was an avid Twitter user.

She said, “I’ve actually had a couple of conversations with my dad recently, where he’s kind of like, ‘I hate that politicians use Twitter,’ and like, ‘It’s so unprofessional,’ and you know, ‘That’s not how a politician should behave themselves.'”

“And I explained that, like, ‘Yeah, I think there are a lot of instances where it is not used in, like, when our president tweets anything that he thinks and like that’s not what he should be using it for,’” she said.

On Tuesday, Trump himself accused Merchan and his family of being “well-known Trump haters,” noting his work on previous cases related to him:

VERY UNFAIR VENUE, WITH SOME AREAS THAT VOTED 1% REPUBLICAN. THIS CASE SHOULD VE MOCED TO NEARBY STATEN ISLAND – WOULD BE A VERY FAIR AND SECURE LOCATION FOR THE TRIAL. ADDITIONALLY, THE HIGHLY PARTISAN JUDGE & HIS FAMILY ARE WELL KNOWN TRUMP HATERS. HE WAS AN UNFAIR DISASTER ON A PREVIOUS TRUMP RELATED CASE, WOULDN’T RECUSE, GAVE HORRIBLE JURY INSTRUCTIONS, & IMPOSSIBLE TO DEAL WITH DURING THE WITCH TRIAL HUNT. HIS DAUGHTER WORKED FOR “KAMALA” & NOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS CAMPAIGN. KANGAROO COURT!!!

Democrats and corporate media figures claimed that the connection between the judge and his daughter’s work for Trump’s political opponents was “irrelevant.”

They also falsely claimed that Trump’s sons posted a photo of Merchan’s daughter as intimidation, failing to mention that they did not post photos, but instead shared news articles about Merchan’s work record, which featured photos of her and her father.