Who is Juan Merchán, the judge who presided over Donald Trump’s trial in New York City?
Here’s a look at Judge Juan Merchán, the judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s trial regarding alleged hush money payments made using campaign funds.
The eyes of the whole world are on Donald Trump, who has just become the first former president to be convicted in a criminal case.
The trial centered on a hush money payments made to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, with campaign funds. The former president is accused of bribing the adult film star to avoid revealing their affair in 2016 when he was in the middle of his presidential campaign.
The trial was presided over by an experienced Latino judge, Juan Merchán, a first-generation immigrant of Colombian and former assistant attorney general in charge in Nassau County and Suffolk County.
Who is Juan Merchan, the Latino judge who is presiding over the impeachment against Trump?
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Merchán immigrated to the United States with his family when he was only 6 years old. The now-justice on the State Supreme Court grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens and became the first member of his family to attend college, according to a profile by the New York Times.
Initially, Merchan received a business degree from Baruch College in New York; but he dropped out to work. However, years later he resumed his studies, although this time he decided to study law at Hofstra University, where he obtained his law degree.
Merchan began his career in 1994 as an Assistant District Attorney in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Later, he made the leap to the State Attorney General’s office. In 2006, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to the Bronx Family Court, and Governor David Paterson to New York State Court of Claims in 2009 In that same year, Juan began serving as an Acting Justice of the New York Supreme Court.
The relationship between Juan Merchán and Donald Trump
The Colombian jurist is no stranger to former President Trump. It was Mechán who sentenced Allen Weisselberg, one of Trump’s most trusted employees, to prison. Additionally, he presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and supervised the case of criminal fraud by his former adviser, Steve Bannon. According to various testimonies collected by CNN, Merchan has been described as “a man of his word,” a “‘tough’ but ‘compassionate” judge who does not tolerate delays or disruptions and knows how to maintain control of the room.
This description matched what many following the trial saw, with Judge Merchan placing Donald Trump under a gag order after he repeatedly spoke about the trial, the jurors, and court officials, which jeopardized the legitimacy of the proceedings. Now that the trial is over, we can expect to hear much more from the former president, who is likely to launch an all-out attack that could threaten the safety of the jury and people like Judge Merchan.