Juan Merchan, the Man Passing Judgment on Donald Trump

In Donald Trump’s mind, it’s more than clear. He “hates me.” At the same time, he attacks Judge Juan Merchan as corrupt, a fraud and even a racist, which is especially imaginative considering that unlike Trump, the judge has an immigration background.

Expect niceties from the Republican to increase. Merchan is presiding over Trump’s criminal trial — the first such case against a former U.S. president — which began a week ago. The trial will enter the active phase on Monday with opening statements.

Trump is charged with falsifying business records, among other counts. At the core of the case is a hush money payment Trump to porn star Stormy Daniels. Merchan was assigned to the case by a judicial lottery, which will mark a reunion for Trump and Merchan, who presided over the trial in which a jury found Trump’s real estate company guilty of tax fraud in 2022.

Many Years of Experience

Merchan, 62, has a great deal of experience as a judge, a role that he did not see as possible for many years. Born in Colombia and the youngest of six children, his family moved to New York when he was six. He grew up in Queens, just like Trump, but under much more modest conditions.

Merchan was the first in his family to attend college. He began his legal career as a Manhattan attorney 1994, and was appointed to the bench in 2006.

Since it became known that Merchan would again sit as the judge in Trump’s hush money trial, Merchan has been the regular victim of verbal attacks. His wife and daughter also have had to bear the brunt of hostility, and were branded “Trump haters” because they’re involved with the Democratic Party.

A Gag Order for Trump

At the beginning of April, Merchan extended a preexisting gag order prohibiting Trump from making verbal attacks on witnesses and jurors, as well as court employees and their relatives.

The gag order does not apply to commenting on District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Merchan himself. One expects that the judge will be able to deal with this. Colleagues describe him as being simultaneously fair and tough, and strict when it comes to anyone trying to play judicial games. So, it is no wonder that Trump repeatedly tried to have the judge recuse himself for bias, to no avail. And so, as a fellow judge told The New York Times, it remains Merchan’s show.