Trump Judge Juan Merchan's Biden Campaign Donation Raise Eyebrows

The judge presiding over the Donald Trump hush money case has drawn scrutiny from conservatives over several donations the judge made to Democrats during the 2020 presidential election, with some saying his apparent political activism should be enough to disqualify him from overseeing the case.

Judging by his campaign finance records, however, records show Judge Juan Merchan could hardly be described as a liberal megadonor.

According to paperwork filed with the Federal Elections Commission, Merchan—a former prosecutor and current acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County—made three donations via the Democratic-backed donation platform ActBlue during the 2020 presidential election totaling $35, an amount some critics claim is potentially disqualifying.

One donation, in the amount of $10, went to a political action committee called "Stop Republicans." Another $10 donation was directed to the Progressive Turnout Project. And a final $15 donation, according to campaign finance reports, was directed to the Joe Biden campaign.

While representing a small share of the effort to defeat the man Merchan is now tasked with evaluating the innocence of, the donations quickly became fodder for the conservative press, which used the donations to question the credibility of Merchan's ability to oversee the case.

"Oh, So the Judge Overseeing Trump's Case Is a Biden Donor," a headline from conservative website TownHall.com read Tuesday.

"Federal Records Expose Judge Presiding Over Trump Case: He's a Biden Donor, and Worse," conservative blog Western Journal wrote in another headline.

Is It Common For Judges To Donate Politically?

It's not unusual for judges or their family members to involve themselves in politics, a trend that often attracts scrutiny on their ability to serve without bias.

Bruce Reinhart, the Florida federal magistrate judge who greenlit an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in pursuit of classified documents he'd taken from his time at the White House, was later found to have donated $2,000 to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Conservative Wisconsin judge Dan Kelly—who lost his bid for the state supreme court Tuesday night—worked closely with Republicans prior to his campaign and played a key role in attempts to overturn the result of Trump's loss there in 2020. And most notably, Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was closely involved in the broader effort to deliver Trump the election that year despite Trump's defeat in both the popular vote and the electoral college.

Merchan has not been isolated from those allegations either. Earlier in the week, a number of prominent conservatives questioned Merchan's impartiality after revelations members of his family had been involved in Democratic activism, with Donald Trump Jr. going as far as posting a picture of Marchan's daughter's face on his Twitter account after it was revealed her consulting firm had done work for the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020.

"I would not be surprised if there's a motion to disqualify this judge," Ashley Moody, Florida's Republican Attorney General, told Fox News earlier this week.

Newsweek has contacted Trump's campaign for comment as well as Juan Merchan via phone.