Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, seen on Friday, March. 31. 2013
Yuki Iwamura/AP
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Yuki Iwamura/AP
Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, seen on Friday, March. 31. 2013
Yuki Iwamura/AP
Now that former president Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in connection with the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, attention will undoubtedly turn to the potential indictment and trial.
The judge handling the unusual and historic case is Juan Manuel Merchan, a veteran of the New York court system who has spent more than 15 years on the council and is no stranger to high-profile prosecutions, especially Trump and his associates.
This case is perhaps Merchan’s best known, however, as it is the first time a former US president has ever been charged with a crime.
Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, is expected to appear in Manhattan court on Tuesday for his impeachment.
The former president had already had his opinion about the judge presiding over his case, saying in social truth filter Last week, Merchan “hated me” and that a judge “railroaded” Trump’s former chief financial officer to plead guilty in a tax fraud case.
Merchan ignored the other cases at the Trumpet
For the past year, Merchan has been closely following the criminal tax fraud case against the Trump Organization, which was ultimately convicted by a Manhattan jury. Trump himself was not at fault in the incident.
Two Trump administration entities were found guilty of 17 counts of tax fraud and falsifying records and were ordered to pay a maximum penalty of $1.61 million.
In the minutes, Merchan included a suggestion from the Trump Organization’s legal team that the case was a political case against the former president and told the attorneys to focus on specific charges; CBS News reported.
“I will not allow you to use any method of selective prosecution, or to claim that this is some kind of new prosecution,” said Merchan.
Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in the case and has been testifying as a star for the prosecution. Mercator sentenced him to five months in prison, and the judge said he would hand down a harsher sentence if he didn’t take a plea deal. political announced.
it is a reward and to watch over criminals against former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who faces fraud and money laundering charges for a former charity that promised to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. Bannon pleaded not guilty.
Merchan is a veteran of the New York legal system
Second New York Journal of Civil LawMerchan has been acting justice of the New York Supreme Court since 2009.
“He is a serious, diligent and even tempered lawyer,” said Manhattan defense attorney Ron Kuby he told NBC News. “He is not one of those judges who cry to the lawyers, and that no judge is known as a joke. But he is always engaged in the market.”
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a lawyer who previously worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office overseeing Merchan’s cases; CNN said Trump probably wouldn’t help his case by publicly criticizing the judge.
Merchan “does not allow the prosecutors or defendants to create any issues in his forum. He does not allow it to happen in a circus instrument or in any other kind of circus. I do not think that Donald Trump will attack him and threaten him. Good for him in court,” Agnifilo said.
“The judge is the kind of judge where he will ignore it and he will not hold it against Donald Trump. He does not claim in any way like that.”
Merchan was previously a family court judge, New York Assistant Attorney General and assistant district attorney in New York County.
He graduated from Baruch College in 1990 and earned his law degree from Hofstra University in 1994.
