Former President Donald Trump this week highlighted the irony of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan imposing a gag order on him as a presidential candidate at the same time his daughter works to elect Democrats to office, noting that she reportedly posted a photo on social media of him behind bars.
“Judge Juan Merchan, who is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, and other Radical Liberals, has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American, unConstitutional “order,” as he continues to try and take away my Rights,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday.
He continued:
This Judge, by issuing a vicious ‘Gag Order,’ is wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement, including the fact that Crooked Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and their Hacks and Thugs are tracking and following me all across the Country, obsessively trying to persecute me, while everyone knows I have done nothing wrong!
Judge Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers in New York, Thursday, March 14, 2024. He’s presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
On Tuesday afternoon, Merchan issued a limited gag order banning Trump from discussing jurors, prospective jurors, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecutors and their family members, and Merchan’s staff and their family members, although he is allowed to discuss Bragg as well as Merchan’s family members. Merchan, who is overseeing the case brought by Bragg surrounding whether Trump falsified records to hide “hush money” payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement about the gag order to the Washington Post, “American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land.”
Later on Tuesday, investigative journalist Laura Loomer reported that Merchan’s daughter Loren — who is the partner and part owner of a firm that runs digital campaigns for Democrats — had a picture of Trump behind bars as her profile picture on her X account. After Loomer’s report, she said Merchan blocked her on X and locked her account, and changed the profile picture to one of Vice President Kamala Harris as a child. Harris was a client of hers in 2020.
Loomer posted on X:
After Loren Merchan blocked me on X and locked her account today after I exposed the fact that she has an X account with a profile pic of President Trump behind jail bars, even though her father is Judge Merchan, who is overseeing President Trump’s “Hush money” trial in NYC, Loren Merchan has now CHANGED HER X PROFILE PICTURE to a photo of @KamalaHarris as a child! As I also reported, Loren Merchan @lorenm426 is the President of an election and campaign focused company called Authentic Campaigns @Authentic_HQ, which has the Biden-Harris campaign as a client and lists them as their featured client on their company website.
She added:
Donald Trump is running against Joe Biden. This trial is taking place in the middle of the 2024 Presidential election season. THIS IS AN EGREGIOUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND BLATANT ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Judge Merchan needs to immediately recuse himself from the case. Obviously Loren Merchan knows this looks bad, which is why she has changed her profile picture on X. Did her father, Judge Merchan, ask her to change it? RECUSE YOURSELF JUDGE MERCHAN!
Trump’s Wednesday post on Truth Social was in response to Loomer’s report. He also added after that post:
Page 2: So, let me get this straight, the Judge’s daughter is allowed to post pictures of her “dream” of putting me in jail, the Manhattan D.A. is able to say whatever lies about me he wants, the Judge can violate our Laws and Constitution at every turn, but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics trying to destroy my life, and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidential Election, which I am dominating? Maybe the Judge is such a hater because his daughter makes money by working to “Get Trump,” and when he rules against me over and over again, he is making her company, and her, richer and richer. How can this be allowed?
Page 3: The Judge has to recuse himself immediately, and right the wrong committed by not doing so last year. If the Biased and Conflicted Judge is allowed to stay on this Sham “Case,” it will be another sad example of our Country becoming a Banana Republic, not the America we used to know and love. These are Election Interfering Witch Hunts. We will crush each one of these Hoaxes, and Make America Great Again!
As Breitbart News previously reported, Loren Merchan is president and partner of Authentic Campaigns, a company that runs digital campaigns for Democrat candidates, according to Merchan’s archived LinkedIn account.
The company’s website features a a testimonial from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) which states, “We partner with our clients to build award-winning online programs for progressive campaigns.”
According to Merchan’s archived LinkedIn account, she worked as the “Director of Digital Persuasion” for “Kamala Harris For The People” from February 2019 through December 2019 — which was during the 2020 presidential election. And according to the company’s website, the “Biden-Harris” campaign was also a client.
Merchan’s LinkedIn account was disabled following a report by Gateway Pundit, which first reported on her work history in April 2023.
Judge Juan Merchan, far right, addresses former President Donald Trump, far left, regarding his rights and requirements, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in a Manhattan courtroom in New York. Defense attorney Joseph Tacopina, center, looked on. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
After that report, her then-apparent Twitter account, @LorenM426, appeared to be deleted — the same month the new account @lorenm426 reported by Loomer appeared.
Merchan presided over a previous Trump-related case involving the Trump Organization and its former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. During that case, Merchan said he would not allow Trump Organization attorneys to accuse Manhattan prosecutors of targeting the company out of animus for Trump, according to CBS News.
“I will not allow you in any way to bring up a selective prosecution claim, or claim this is some sort of novel prosecution,” he reportedly said, adding he would “have very little patience at trial any questions that are not in a good faith basis.”
Merchan sentenced Weisselberg to five months in prison and ordered the Trump Organization to pay a $1.6 million fine, the maximum under state law, according to Fox News.
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