Meet Juan Merchán: A global audience is attentively observing Donald Trump.The trial for the case involving hush money payments made with campaign funds to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, professionally known as Stormy Daniels, began this week. Allegedly, while in the midst of his 2016 presidential campaign, the former president bribed the adult film celebrity to prevent the revelation of their affair.
Juan Merchán, a seasoned Latino judge and first-generation Colombian immigrant who formerly served as the assistant attorney general in command of Nassau County and Suffolk County, will preside over the trial.
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Juan Merchan is the Latino judge who is currently preside over the Trump impeachment proceedings.
Merchán, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, emigrated with his family to the United States when he was six years old. According to a profile in the New York Times, the now-justice on the State Supreme Court grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens and was the first member of his family to attend college.
Merchan received an initial business degree from Baruch College in New York before abandoning his studies to pursue employment. However, he resumed his studies years later, this time with the intention of obtaining a law degree from Hofstra University.
Assistant District Attorney in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Merchan commenced his professional trajectory in 1994. Subsequently, he transitioned to the position of State Attorney General. He was appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the Bronx Family Court in 2006, and by New York State Governor David Paterson to the New York State Court of Claims in 2009. Juan assumed the role of Acting Justice of the New York Supreme Court in the aforementioned year.
Donald Trump is dismissing him as a hater, but Judge Juan Merchan, who’s expected to preside over the former president’s arraignment, is a veteran jurist with a reputation for being stern yet compassionate. https://t.co/CevTGf8QYN
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 31, 2023
The dynamic between Donald Trump and Juan Merchán
Former President Trump is not a stranger to the Colombian jurist. Mechán presided over the incarceration of Allen Weisselberg, a highly regarded employee of Trump. Furthermore, he presided over the tax fraud trial involving the Trump Organization and oversaw the criminal fraud case involving Steve Bannon, his former adviser.
CNN has characterized Merchan as “a man of his word,” a “tough” yet “compassionate” judge who maintains control of the room and does not tolerate delays or disruptions, based on multiple testimonies.
“Neither the defendants nor the prosecutors are permitted to cause any disruptions in [Merchan’s] courtroom. He prohibits the occurrence of media circuses and all other types of circuses. The ramifications of Donald Trump’s assault and threats on him in the courtroom are not encouraging. The judge is the type of jurist who would disregard the evidence and not consider it detrimental to Donald Trump. “In no way is he vindictive in that regard,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former senior assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and a practicing attorney, told CNN.
