Trump Family Rages Over Manhattan Judge's Daughter's Work History

Donald Trump's family raged over New York judge Juan Merchan's daughter's work history ahead of his arraignment on Tuesday.

The former president surrendered to authorities in New York, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to two women before the 2016 presidential election. Trump made history as the first former U.S. president to be charged in a criminal investigation.

The arraignment follows Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into payments allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in connection with alleged affairs they had with Trump. He has maintained his innocence in the case and denied having the affairs.

Trump and his allies have attacked last week's grand injury indictment, accusing prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated "witch hunt" aimed at weakening his standing as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination. Trump's conservative allies also sought to portray Merchan as politically biased even before the arraignment.

Meanwhile, the Trump family expressed anger over reports that Merchan's daughter Loren worked on Vice President Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential campaign. Conservative media outlet The Gateway Pundit reported that his daughter worked for Harris' campaign during the Democratic primaries in 2019 as well as at Authentic Campaigns, an agency that works on progressive campaigns.

In a post on his Truth Social platform just hours before his arraignment, Trump mentioned Loren Merchan's political connections and called for the trial to be moved out of Manhattan—a deeply Democratic-leaning jurisdiction—to the more conservative Staten Island.

"ADDITIONALLY, THE HIGHLY PARTISAN JUDGE & HIS FAMILY ARE WELL KNOWN TRUMP HATERS. HE WAS AN UNFAIR DISASTER ON A PREVIOUS TRUMP RELATED CASE, WOULDN'T RECUSE, GAVE HORRIBLE JURY INSTRUCTIONS, & IMPOSSIBLE TO DEAL WITH DURING THE WITCH HUNT TRIAL. HIS DAUGHTER WORKED FOR "KAMALA" & NOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS CAMPAIGN. KANGAROO COURT!!!" Trump wrote.

Trump's family members and allies argued that Loren's connections to Democratic politics indicated that the court system is biased against the ex-president. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: "Seems relevant... yet another connection in this hand picked democrat show trial. The BS never ends folks."

His brother, Eric, tweeted: "They are all hand picked. It is all pre-arranged. This corruption is on a different level."

Newsweek reached out by email to the New York state court system's press office for comment.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump's top allies in Congress, showed up in Manhattan Tuesday morning to protest the arraignment. The Georgia Republican tweeted: "You can't even make up how corrupt this WITCH HUNT is!"

Despite the Trump family's concerns, others have praised Merchan, an acting New York state Supreme Court justice. José Fanjul, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, told The New York Times that Merchan is "someone who reads every word on every page of every filing and every footnote, and then the cases that you cite to him."

Merchan handed Trump's legal team one victory before the arraignment, agreeing that videos should not be present in the courtroom. His attorneys had argued that broadcasting the arraignment would create security concerns and a "circus-like atmosphere."

Merchan was assigned the case because of a rotation in which judges are assigned to oversee grand juries and the cases that arise from them, according to the Associated Press.

Merchan also presided over the Bragg's case against the Trump Organization that ended with the company being found guilty of tax fraud this past December. The former president was not charged personally. During the trial, the judge said he wanted to keep politics out of the courtroom, the AP reported.