An MSNBC guest said Friday that it is “troubling” that the judge presiding over the case against former President Donald Trump made a campaign contribution to President Joe Biden.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges Tuesday after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him on March 30. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in order to buy her silence about an alleged affair.
Judge Juan Merchan donated $15 to Biden in 2020 and $10 to a group dedicated to “resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy,” according to the New York Post.
Former federal prosecutor Carol Lam weighed in on the news on MSNBC.
“Carol, we’ve also learned, through an FEC filing report, that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s New York arraignment, made a campaign donation to President Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, it was for $15. Are the optics problematic here?” MSNBC anchor Lindsey Reiser asked.
“I think the optics are a bit problematic,” Lam said. “To be clear, the donations were made in 2020, before Judge Merchan had either the Trump Organization case assigned to him, or obviously this case, but it is troubling optics, I think, for any judge to have made a political contribution, and then to have a party who is either the beneficiary or not the beneficiary of that political contribution before that judge in court. Now, it was a trivial amount of money and this is a trial level judge.” (RELATED: ‘Open Season On Any Politician’: Trump Indictment ‘Lowers The Bar’ For Other Prosecutions, Experts Say)
“The judge in this case is not the ultimate trier of fact, the jury is, but the judge does call some balls and some strikes during the course of the trial, and if there’s a conviction, the judge is responsible for sentencing. That is all subject to review on appeal. However, it is probably not the best course of action for a judge to have made political contributions while a sitting judge, with the possibility that such cases can arise before him,” Lam continued.
Trump has spoken out against Merchan, writing in a March 31 Truth Social post that “the Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME. His name is Juan Manuel Marchan, was hand-picked by Bragg & the Prosecutors.”