Lawyer Schoen: Judge Merchan Violating NY Law, Must Recuse

Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump's business records case, must recuse himself, as his "disqualification is mandatory under New York law," because of his daughter's political fundraising activities, lawyer David Schoen, who represented Trump in his second impeachment trial, told Newsmax.

"This judge has no interest in being fair," Schoen told "Eric Bolling: The Balance." "The American Bar Association put out a thing last week or so, saying that the lawyers should be standing up for these judges. I don't have an interest in standing up for a judge who shouldn't be on a case."

Schoen said Merchan's disqualification is mandatory under New York law 100.3 e(1)d(iii), which states "a judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where the judge knows that the judge or the judge's spouse, or a person known by the judge to be within the sixth degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person has an interest that could be substantially affected by the proceeding."

"There's no question here," Schoen said. "We know that they've raised $93 million. ... We know that the judge and his daughter have a vested interest in making sure this case isn't dismissed and goes on. The integrity of the system sufferers when this happens, and I think you'll see President Trump go up in the polls."

Loren Merchan, the judge's daughter, has served as president and partner at Authentic Campaigns, which has worked for numerous Democrat clients, including President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and Vice President Kamala's White House run that year.

Loren Merchan's company has also worked for the pro-Democrat super PAC Senate Majority PAC, and continues to work for the Senate campaign of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Schoen further said he has questions about the jury selection in the Trump trial.

"How is it [they were] picking the jury faster than was anticipated," he said. "It's not hard if you refuse to dismiss jurors for cause, who clearly qualify for dismissal for cause."

But Merchan saved jurors who should have been dismissed for cause, "clearly based on social media posts," said Schoen. "One juror, he agonized over and only finally dismissed for cause because she also posted that Trump ought to be locked up in jail."

Schoen said he hopes that there is at least "one good juror who has some common sense and sees this for the political prosecution that it is and is offended by that."

Schoen said if Trump is convicted, the case will go ot the appellate division court, where his attorneys can argue some "real legal issues."

"This recusal thing is a real issue, what I think is a major issue in this case, and it renders the indictment defective is the fact that the target crime was never specified by the grand jury," said Schoen. "What I mean by that is they charge a misdemeanor for doctoring business records, and it becomes a felony if the person doctors the business records with the intent to defraud and commit another crime."

Trump, as the defendant, has the right to know what he's being charged with in order to defend his rights, Schoen added.

"The prosecution said there are four theories on what the crime might have been. And he accepted at least three of them," he said. "How would you defend against the case if you don't know if you're supposed to have mixed up, messed up, messed up the documents to commit a tax crime or an election crime? Those are two completely different defenses."

The matter also raises questions of double jeopardy, and "that's real issue for the people," Schoen said.

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