Tornado Alley (PROG)

[sortagreen]

Judge's daughter...

On May 31, 2023, Trump’s legal team had raised the issue of Loren Merchan’s political work in an effort to get the judge to recuse himself. About six weeks earlier, Justice Merchan sought an opinion on the issue from the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which found no reason for recusal.

“[T]he matter currently before the judge does not involve either the judge’s relative or the relative’s business, whether directly or indirectly,” the committee wrote in its May 4, 2023, opinion. “They are not parties or likely witnesses in the matter, and none of the parties or counsel before the judge are clients of the business. We see nothing in the inquiry to suggest that the outcome of the case could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business, or any of their interests.”

As to the wife...

So, the potential conflict of interest posed by Loren Merchan’s job has already been discredited by the judicial ethics committee, and a former Trump lawyer on the case has said there’s no reason to think the judge is biased.

Regarding the meme’s claim about Merchan’s wife’s current job — that’s inaccurate.

Lara Merchan works in the Nassau County district attorney’s office. Currently, that office is led by District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, who is a Republican.

According to Lara Merchan’s LinkedIn profile, she did work in the New York state attorney general’s office from November 2000 to March 2022. That means she would have worked for about three years under James, who took office in January 2019, and has been working for Donnelly for more than two years.