Donald Trump indicted: Presiding judge has history of overseeing Trump-related cases

The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial has a history of overseeing Trump-related cases. Juan Merchan, a New York State Supreme Court Justice, is also handling the case against former Trump aide Steve Bannon and has previously heard proceedings regarding the Trump Organization. Merchan presided over the Manhattan grand jury that, last week, indicted Donald Trump on charges related to the alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle.

Merchan acted as the judge in the trial against the Trump Organization and former CFO Allen Weisselberg, convicting the defendants of 17 counts of tax fraud and falsifying business records. Although President Trump was not a party in the case, the company’s lawyers tried to argue that the prosecution was politically motivated, which Merchan dismissed.

Reacting to Merchan’s assignment to the case, Trump posted to Truth Social, “The Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME.”

Merchan, a “no-nonsense” jurist with 16 years of experience as a judge, is overseeing another high-profile case involving Steve Bannon, which involves fraud and money laundering charges related to a charity set up to fund the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

According to Nicholas Gravante, who represented Weisselberg, Merchan is “efficient, practical, and listened carefully to what I had to say.”

Merchan began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in 1994. He was later appointed as a family court judge by then-Republican former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006. He was appointed by Democratic Gov. David Paterson to the state’s Court of Claims in 2009, beginning his service on the trial court, which is called the Supreme Court in New York.

Merchan emigrated from Colombia when he was six years old and earned a law degree in 1994 from Hofstra University.