The House Judiciary Committee demanded that Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter provide records related to her firm’s role with Democratic campaigns and the prosecution of Donald Trump in his falsified business records case.
“Experts have raised substantial concerns with Judge Merchan, your father, refusing to recuse himself from President Trump’s case despite your work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the financial benefit that your firm, Authentic Campaigns Inc., could receive from the prosecution and conviction,” the committee wrote in a letter to Loren Merchan.
“[W]e believe you possess records that will inform legislative reforms to address the weaponization of judicial system,” the letter read.
The letter explains Merchan’s role in the “presidential campaigns for both President Biden and Vice President Harris.” In 2019, Merchan served as the “director of digital persuasion for then-presidential candidate Harris’s campaign while simultaneously serving as Vice President at Authentic Campaigns,” which is described as a “Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm.”
Merchan later became the President of Authentic Campaigns.
The firm also worked closely with the Senate Majority PAC and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). These clients have financially benefitted from Trump’s indictments, the letter added.
“Notably, according to one report, Representative Schiff’s campaign for U.S. Senate has received ‘$20 million in aid since he began soliciting donations off the presumptive GOP presidential front-runner’s unprecedented 34-count indictment last April,'” the committee explained. “The Senate Majority PAC similarly has ‘pocketed $73.6 million since it also began firing off fundraising emails following the ex-president’s indictment.'”
“At a minimum, there is a perception that you and Authentic Campaigns could profit considerably from President Trump’s prosecution in a forum overseen by your father,” the letter read.
The House Judiciary Committee’s letter goes on to request that Merchan provide “all contracts and invoices referring or relating to work performed by Authentic Campaigns for or on behalf of the Biden for President campaign, the Harris for President campaign, or the Democratic National Committee for the period January 1, 2023, to the present;” records relating to the prosecution of Donald Trump, and communications between Authentic Campaigns and Judge Juan Merchan or his employees.
The House Judiciary Committee previously declared that Judge Merchan violated Trump’s rights alongside Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
According to the report, the officials “worked together to deprive President Donald J. Trump of his constitutional and legal rights.”
“A fundamental principle of the American system of justice is that no individual is above the law,” the committee wrote. “But just as important is the precept that prosecutors prosecute conduct, not individuals.”
Discussing Judge Merchan’s failures, the report claimed the judge failed “to recuse himself for manifest political bias against President Trump” and imposed an “unconstitutional gag order.” It also condemns Judge Merchan’s “admission of plainly inadmissible, irrelevant, and unfairly prejudicial testimony against President Trump” and his “refusal to permit former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith to testify as to the meaning and complexities of the Federal Election Campaign Act.”
