Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has issued a subpoena for information on the political work that is being done by the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan. This man has been given a number of opportunities to recuse himself from this case and has refused each and every time. Merchan has made it clear he wants to put former President Donald Trump behind bars. It’s abuse of power and the transforming of the justice system into a weapon against the political enemies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Fox News is reporting that Jordan wrote a letter and sent it to Michael Nellis, who is the founder and CEO of Authentic Campaigns, a company that has been involved in a number of political projects for several top Democratic clients such as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In the letter, Jordan levels accusations of failure to comply with the demands of House investigators for documents that are related to the prosecution of Trump.
The committee wrote to Loren Merchan, the company’s president and Judge Merchan’s daughter, earlier this month requesting documents in its probe into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump. Jordan pointed out in his Wednesday letter that Nellis himself rejected that request as well as a subsequent one later in the month.
“As such, the Committee is left with no choice but to resort to compulsory process,” Jordan stated in the letter. “Popularly elected prosecutors, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have engaged in an unprecedented abuse of authority by prosecuting a former President of the United States and current nominee for that office. Of relevance to the Committee’s oversight is the impartiality of Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding trial judge, due to his refusal to recuse himself from the case in light of his apparent conflicts of interest and biases.”
“One such conflict is Ms. Merchan’s — daughter of Judge Merchan and President of Authentic Campaigns — work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the possible financial benefit that Ms. Merchan and Authentic Campaigns received from the prosecution and conviction of President Trump,” he continued.
The Ohio Republican revealed that public reports indicated that both Loren Merchan and Nellis were “closely involved in the presidential campaigns of both President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
“During Ms. Merchan’s employment with the Harris campaign, Authentic Campaigns received over $7 million in compensation for its services. You also worked for then-presidential candidate Harris and it appears you continue to do so. Authentic Campaigns conducted work for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign and, according to public records, was paid just over $2 million in a one-month period for its work,” he went on to say.
The latest subpoena is far narrower in its scope than the previous request that Jordan made for information. In the letter he sent on Aug. 1, he demanded that Judge Merchan’s daughter provide documents that were connected with any work that might have been done for Biden and Harris, along with any work that makes references to the prosecution or indictment of the former president.
Nellis has until Sept. 13 to comply with the new subpoena. He already provided a response to it in a post published on social media platform X. In the post, Nellis said that his company was “thoroughly reviewing the subpoena with our legal team and will provide updates as soon as we have more information.”
“Let us be clear: these allegations against our company are completely false and purely politically motivated,” Nellis added. “This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and divert attention from Donald Trump’s conviction. We refuse to be bullied, and we will not allow House Republicans or MAGA extremists to spread lies about our work. We remain steadfast in our mission and are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of our friends and family during this time.”
There are a number of conflicts of interest concerning Judge Merchan and his involvement in the case against Trump. He should do the right thing and recuse himself.
Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 for his 34 felony convictions.