Though Juan Merchan was randomly assigned to his case, the former president has already taken to Truth Social, the social-media platform he founded, to rant against the judge who he claims “hates” him Credit: Reuters
, who as Manhattan’s district attorney issued the indictment; he claims Mr Bragg is politically motivated. But the former president has also attacked Juan Merchan, the judge who was assigned to his case. Who is Judge Merchan, and why is Mr Trump so worked up about him?Mr Merchan was born in Colombia and emigrated to the United States in the late 1960s as a six-year-old child. He grew up in the ethnically diverse neighbourhood of Jackson Heights in Queens, which is also Mr Trump’s home borough.
Yet Mr Trump claims that Mr Merchan treated his companies “VICIOUSLY”. Indeed, the Brennan Centre for Justice, a think-tank, has found that Mr Trump has a pattern of attacking the authority of the judiciary, both on political matters and in connection with civil cases to which he is a party. But Mr Merchan is unlikely to take Mr Trump’s vitriol personally.