One of the many factors tainting a New York jury’s conviction of former President Donald Trump is the fact that the judge who oversaw the Soviet-style show trial previously donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The judge’s daughter also represents Democrat clients who raised millions off the trial.
In an unsurprising move, the jury in deep-blue Manhattan found Trump guilty Thursday on all counts related to a payment his then-lawyer made to a pornographer as part of a nondisclosure agreement. The saga marks the first time in U.S. history a major party has weaponized the justice system to convict its chief political opponent ahead of a contested election.
Trump is expected to be sentenced on July 11, which is several days before the Republican presidential nominating convention.
Despite Democrats’ best attempts to cast the show trial as legitimate, the case was rigged against Trump from the start. Case in point: Judge Juan Merchan, who previously donated to Biden’s 2020 reelection bid. According to the New York Post, Merchan “donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020, including $15 to President Biden’s campaign and $10 to a group dedicated to ‘resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.’”
The payments were made in July 2020 through ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for Democrats and leftist causes.
Merchan’s antagonism towards Trump was on full display throughout the trial. As my colleague John Daniel Davidson recently explained, Merchan told jurors ahead of deliberations that “they need not agree on what crime Trump allegedly
