Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump case, donated to Biden campaign in 2020
Judge Juan Merchan, the jurist handling former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan, donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020, including $15 to President Biden’s campaign and $10 to a group dedicated to “resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.”
Federal Election Commission records show Merchan made three small-dollar donations within the span of two days in July 2020 through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s preferred online fundraising platform.
The veteran judge contributed $15 earmarked for the “Biden for President” campaign on July 26, 2020, and then the following day made $10 contributions to the Progressive Turnout Project and Stop Republicans.
The Progressive Turnout Project’s stated mission is to “rally Democrats to vote,” according to the group’s website.
Stop Republicans is a subsidiary of the Progressive Turnout Project and describes itself as “a grassroots-funded effort dedicated to resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.”
FEC records show that Merchan listed his occupation as “judge” on the donation form, and his employer as the New York State Office of Court Administration.
Trump, 76, has railed against Merchan since his indictment, deriding him as “Trump-hating judge.”
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week, misspelling Merchan’s name.
Trump added that Merchan “is the same person who ‘railroaded’ my 75-year-old former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, to take a ‘plea’ deal (Plead GUILTY, even if you are not, 90 DAYS, fight us in Court, 10 years (life!) in jail.”
Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization CFO, is serving time on Rikers Island after pleading guilty to a slew of tax fraud charges.
At his post-arraignment speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Trump went after Merchan’s family as well.
“I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden Harris campaign — and a lot of it,” he claimed.
The former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on Tuesday shared a link on social media that included a photo of Merchan’s daughter, Loren, alleging that she worked on the Biden-Harris presidential campaign.
“Seems relevant…yet another connection in this hand-picked Democrat show trial. The BS never ends folks,” Trump Jr., wrote in the post.
Loren Merchan was listed as a Democrat on a 2020 honors list by Campaigns & Elections, which detailed her work as a president and partner with Authentic Campaigns, a digital agency geared toward progressive political campaigns.
Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business documents in connection to alleged hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
