OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A former prosecutor has spoken out following a report that the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan made political contributions to Democrats and left-wing organizations, calling them “troubling optics.”
The charges against Trump relate to hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. However, the judge overseeing the case is under scrutiny due to previous political donations, Fox News reported.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Judge Juan Merchan made donations of $15 or less in 2020 to the Biden for President campaign committee, as well as to the Progressive Turnout Project and its subsidiary political action committee, Stop Republicans.
In an interview with MSNBC, former Southern California U.S. Attorney Carol Lam warned that those donations could harm the public’s perception of the trial and question Merchan’s alleged impartiality.
MSNBC host Lindsey Reiser said, “We’ve also learned, during an FEC filing report, that Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s New York arraignment, made a campaign donation to President Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, it was for $15.”
Reiser went on to ask: “Are the optics problematic here?”
Lam responded: “I think the optics are a bit problematic,” while going on to note that political donations from judges are an ethical conundrum.
“To be clear, the donations were made in 2020, before Judge Merchan had either the Trump organization case assigned to him or, obviously, this case, but it is troubling optics, I think, for any judge to have made a political contribution, and then to have a party who is either the beneficiary or not the beneficiary of that political contribution before that judge in court,” she added, according to Fox News.
The former prosecutor went on to say that it wasn’t the amount of money donated, it was to whom the donations were made.
“Now, it was a trivial amount of money, and this is a trial-level judge. The judge, in this case, is not the ultimate trier of fact, the jury is, but the judge does call some balls and some strikes during the course of the trial, and if there’s a conviction, the judge is responsible for sentencing,” she said.
“That is all subject to review on appeal. However, it is probably not the best course of action for a judge to have made political contributions while a sitting judge, with the possibility that such cases can arise before him,” Lam said.
Trump appeared in front of Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday for his arraignment. However, Trump has criticized the judge on social media, calling him and his family “Trump haters.”
It has also been revealed that Merchan’s daughter worked for Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign and her consulting firm, Biden-Harris 2020 campaign.
Merchan, who is overseeing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the former president, could eventually face an ethics complaint over the donations, according to legal experts.
Per Section 100.5 of the New York Code of Judicial Conduct, sitting judges cannot “directly or indirectly engage in any political activity.” Among the prohibited political activity: “(h) soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution to a political organization or candidate.”
The New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics’s yearly-updated handbook points this out clearly: “A sitting judge may not make political contributions at any time, even to a U.S. presidential candidate or to a federal congressional candidate outside of New York State (Opinion 11-146; 22 NYCRR 100.5[A][1][h]).”
And according to the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct, a judge shall not, unless permitted by law, “solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or a candidate for public office.”
“However, Merchan — a New York state judge — made three political donations in 2020, according to public Federal Election Commission records,” Breitbart pointed out.
FEC records reveal that Merchan contributed $15.00 to Biden for President, Trump’s opponent, on July 26, 2020, through ActBlue. On the following day, July 27, 2020, he made a $10.00 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, an organization focused on encouraging Democrat voters to turn out.
Additionally, he donated $10.00 to Stop Republicans, which is part of the Progressive Turnout Project that aims to resist the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s “radical right-wing legacy,” also through ActBlue, Breitbart News reported.
