Judge Overseeing Trump Case Is Biden Donor

Acting NY County Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s criminal case, has ties to the 2020 Biden campaign. Merchan donated three times to ActBlue in the summer of 2020, with one donation earmarked for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to FEC filings. His daughter, Loren, was a campaign worker for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020 and is now the president of a consulting company that lists the Biden-Harris campaign as a client.

Loren’s now-deleted LinkedIn page confirmed that she graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 2011 and worked as the director of digital persuasion for Kamala Harris’s campaign. She now serves as the president of a digital advertising and online fundraising agency, Authentic Campaigns, which has raised over $250 million for progressive campaigns. Its website features a video of Kamala Harris and lists the Biden-Harris campaign at the top of its client roster. Loren has won multiple awards, including the 2020 Rising Star title, considered one of the most prestigious honors in the campaign community, by the Campaign & Elections trade magazine.

Trump’s arraignment will take place before Merchan on Tuesday afternoon, who previously oversaw high-profile prosecutions of former Trump associates, such as Allen Weisselberg and Steve Bannon. Merchan sentenced Weisselberg to jail time and handled the correlating Trump Organization tax-fraud trial, where the company was found guilty. Bannon’s fraud case is also being overseen by Merchan. While Merchan is tough on Trump-affiliated defendants, he is also credited with creating the Manhattan Mental Health Court, a program that offers mentally ill criminals charged with felonies “compassionate” treatment as an alternative to incarceration.

Trump has criticized Merchan in a pair of posts on Truth Social, calling him a “highly partisan” judge who “hates” him and referencing Loren’s left-wing political affiliations.