Date: October 28th, 2025 5:41 PM
Author: boyish home
First, on the topic of Justice Merchan’s improper political contributions,
the Committee made two points. It first stated that “none” of the
contributions at issue “was made to the defendant or the prosecutor or anyone
else involved in the case.” A405. That logic is hard to understand. If
contributions to President Trump’s 2020 campaign would have been
disqualifying, as the Committee seemed to imply, then surely a contribution
directly against him—to his opponent in both the 2020 and 2024 Presidential
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campaigns—should have been disqualifying as well. There is little doubt that
DANY would have cried foul if Justice Merchan had donated $35 to President
Trump’s 2020 campaign, and rightly so.
The Committee also reasoned that Justice Merchan’s contributions were
made “more than two years” before the indictment, and that the Committee
“seldom require[s] disqualification . . . for more than two years.” A405. But
the Committee’s two citations for this supposed two-year statute of limitations
were not remotely on-point. The first was an ethics opinion requiring judges
to disclose (for two years) the fact of their having attended an attorney’s
wedding as a guest. See Opinion 22-138. The second was an opinion requiring
judges to recuse from any case involving an attorney who personally
represented the judge (in the preceding two years). See Opinion 22-183. The
Committee did not explain how either situation is analogous. More
importantly, the judicial code’s written provision forbidding political
contributions—a provision the Committee did not cite—contains no time limit,
let alone a time limit of only two years for Presidential campaigns, which of
course take place every four years.
Second, the Committee was not apprised of all of the troubling additional
facts bearing on Justice Merchan’s neutrality. The Committee’s opinion
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merely referred to Ms. Merchan as a “high-ranking officer” and employee of
Authentic Campaigns, rather than part-owner with a direct financial interest
in the company. A405. At the time of the opinion, President Trump had not
yet uncovered Authentic’s advertisements specifically discussing DANY’s
prosecution. Thus, the Committee was under the misimpression that
Authentic would not do “any work referencing or affected by the criminal
charges at issue here.” A306. As explained at pp. 90-91, supra, that was not
accurate. Nor did the Committee address or analyze Justice Merchan’s
improper conduct with Weisselberg in the separate case against the Trump
Organization.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5790942&forum_id=2...id#49382842)