Former president Trump has a good argument that Judge Juan Merchan should recuse himself from the ongoing “hush money” trial due to patent political bias. I’ve opined as much several times (see, e.g., here, here, and here). It’s also true that Merchan has bent over backward to accommodate the dubious legal theories of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected progressive Democrat who has brought this unabashedly political prosecution — although the judge has sprinkled in a couple of rulings that benefit (one I discussed here, one I’ll address in a separate post).
Consistent with his MO, though, Trump is undermining a good argument by provoking dumb controversies in a transparent attempt to portray Merchan as utterly blinded by anti-Trump animus. Because this entails saying things that aren’t true, it is apt to lead reviewing courts to conclude that the true things Trump has said about Merchan are suspect. As ever, the Client from Hell is his own worst enemy.
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