Trump judge has ‘no agenda’

NEW YORK — Judge Juan M. Merchan looked across his high-ceilinged courtroom, facing the defendant in a complicated case.

Not the one everyone knows about. Merchan could become the first judge ever to oversee a former U.S. president’s criminal trial: Donald Trump’s hush money case. But on a recent morning, the judge was attending to much less conspicuous cases in Manhattan’s onceweekly Mental Health Court, where selected mentally ill offenders agree to closely monitored treatment in hopes of getting charges dismissed and their lives on track.

As Merchan talked with defendants about their progress, stumbles, jobs, families and even workouts, it was a far cry from the upcoming trial in which Trump will be at the defense table, but the judge also will be in a hot seat.

The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee has called Merchan a “Trump-hating” judge, and defense lawyers unsuccessfully asked him to exit the case. Merchan received dozens of death threats after Trump slammed him on social media last year.

On Friday, 10 days before jury selection was to start, Merchan postponed the trial until at least mid-April because of a last-minute evidence dump. He scheduled a hearing on next steps for March 25.

Merchan wouldn’t talk about the case last week, but he allowed that getting ready for the historic trial is “intense.”

He is striving “to make sure that I’ve done everything I could to be prepared and to make sure that we dispense justice,” he said in an interview, emphasizing his confidence in court staffers.

“There’s no agenda here,” he said. “We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done.”

“That’s all we want,” he said. Born in Colombia, Merchan emigrated with his family as a 6-year-old and grew up in New York. He worked his way through college, graduated from Hofstra University’s law school and was a state lawyer and Manhattan prosecutor before being appointed a family court judge in 2006. Three years later, he was assigned to a felony trial court, which New York calls a state Supreme Court.

Now 61, he has presided over cases alleging murder, rape and many other crimes: a multimillion-dollar investment fraud, a clubland stabbing, stolen laptops, harassment.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to doctoring business records to veil a 2016 effort to squelch claims of extramarital affairs, which he denies. Prosecutors say he was trying to protect his first campaign; he has said he is fighting a “fake case” brought to impede his current run.

Trump’s lawyers have pointed out Merchan’s daughter is a political consultant whose firm has worked for Democrats and the judge donated

$35 in 2020 to Democrats, including $15 to now-President Joe Biden.

A state court ethics panel opined Merchan could continue on the case. The judge has maintained he can be fair and impartial.

Roger Stavis, a lawyer who testified before Merchan during a jury trial years ago, recalls the judge as self-confident but “not overbearing.”

“He’s in command of his courtroom,” Stavis said. “He won’t be baited, and he won’t be pushed around.”

As for Merchan himself, he says that in his courtroom, “everybody gets treated respectfully, professionally.”