Claiming conflicts, Trump lawyers to seek recusal by judge in criminal case
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NEW YORK — Attorneys for former president Donald Trump are expected to argue that the judge overseeing his criminal case has conflicts that should disqualify him from seeing it forward. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, a veteran judge who also handled the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial, was appointed to preside over Trump’s 34-count falsifying business records indictment when it was voted by a grand jury in late March.
Merchan recently set a March 2024 trial date, which was met by criticism from Trump and his advocates because it is expected to interfere with presidential election primary activities. Trump is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for a second term as president.
The motion that Trump lawyers plan to file will argue Merchan has political and personal conflicts, according to a statement released on Wednesday by Trump attorneys Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche.
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The document itself has not yet been made public but is expected to detail what the lawyers said were “numerous conflicts” that should disqualify Merchan from sitting on the case. The statement said the jurist “apparently made” contributions to President Biden and a Democratic organization.
“President Trump, like all Americans, is entitled under the Constitution to an impartial judge and legal process,” Necheles and Blanche wrote.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for the New York State Unified Court System, declined to comment on Merchan’s behalf.
Necheles and Blanche in their statement also suggested that Merchan’s handling of the Trump Organization tax case was unfair and that he pressured longtime company executive Allen Weisselberg into entering a plea agreement and testifying against the business.
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Weisselberg served a 5-month jail sentence but had faced up to 15 years behind bars after admitting to avoiding tax payments on $1.7 million in personal income over a number of years. He admitted to spearheading tax-avoidance schemes that benefited other executives and the company.
The company was convicted in December and was ordered to pay $1.6 million in state fines, the maximum allowed by law.
Merchan is also presiding over a state case brought against former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, a case that was picked up by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office after Trump issued Bannon a pardon which had the effect of ending Bannon’s federal case.
In both federal and state courts, Bannon has been accused of stealing from a fundraising campaign called “We Build the Wall,” which purported to be a private effort to raise capital for constructing Trump’s long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall across the entire dividing line.
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Source: The Washington Post
