Former US President Donald Trump is again striving to disqualify the judge, who is to oversee his forthcoming criminal trial in New York, from the trial, having employed the arguments the pro-Democratic political consultants have a conflict of interest.
Just like Trump had requested Judge Juan Merchan’s recusal on similar grounds, but the motion was rejected when an ethics committee determined there was no substantial question regarding Merchan’s impartiality.
Why the recusal?
In the file, which is one page long and was added on 1 April, lawyers of Trump asked judge Merchan to give them permission to file the request of the court to recuse himself, arguing that the trial will benefit financially the daughter’s campaign firm, Authentic Campaigns.
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“It can no longer be ignored that Authentic’s commercial interests are benefited by developments in this case,” Trump’s lawyers noted.
With the opening of the trial on 15 April, the former US president would become the first ever criminal defendant of the American presidency.
The former president has pleaded not guilty ten 34 charges of falsification of business accounts to conceal all the payoffs with the former lawyer Michael Cohen in the sum of $ 130,000 to the director of the adult movie Stormy Daniels aka Stephanie Clifford, to stay quiet about having sexual relations with Trump before the election of 2016.
Trump’s denial of any involvement with Daniels.
Trump extended bar attacks on judge’s family
Yet on the flip side, a court in New York just before granted Trump’s wish to be held back from making indecent attacks against his daughter, the ex-president shared a clip on Truth media or Truth Social where the Fox News host Brian Kilmeade has made nasty attacks on her just after hours of his own nasty attack.
Loren Merchan, the head of a political consultancy with Democratic ties, has been targeted by Trump in his bid to remove her father, Judge Juan Merchan, from overseeing his New York hush-money case.
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The shared clip includes attorney Jonathan Turley and Kilmeade on “Fox & Friends,” where they discuss Judge Merchan’s recent decision. This ruling extended the gag order against Trump, which initially only covered court personnel, prosecutors, and witnesses. The updated order now also prohibits Trump from making public attacks against the relatives of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan.