Left: Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg on Dec. 4, 2023. Lev Radin/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images) Dec. 4, 2023. Right: Former President Donald Trump on Feb. 15, 2024, in New York. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday asked a New York City court not to allow former President Donald Trump to file a second judicial recusal motion in his hush money case.
In a 2-page letter, the district attorney’s office disputed claims advanced by the 45th president’s defense earlier this week that “changed circumstances and newly discovered evidence” necessitate another attempt to remove the judge overseeing the case.
“Defendant has identified no changed circumstances that warrant revisiting the Court’s August 11, 2023, Order denying defendant’s earlier motion for recusal,” Bragg and his office wrote in the letter.
The new recusal effort is largely a reprise of a June 2023 attempt to have New York Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan tossed from the case due to his daughter’s work as a prominent Democratic Party-affiliated political consultant who heads Authentic Campaigns.
In May 2023, an Empire State court ethics panel found Merchan’s “impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned” because of his daughter’s “business and/or political activities” and that he was “not ethically required to disclose them.” The judge issued his own ruling in August 2023, finding that “recusal would not be in the public interest” and that he was “certain in [his] ability to be fair and impartial.”
The district attorney’s office insists the second recusal effort by the defense is less reprise than direct playback.
“There is simply nothing new here that would alter this Court’s prior conclusion that nothing about this proceeding will directly benefit Authentic or this Court’s family member, let alone this Court,” Bragg’s Tuesday letter reads.
Trump, for his part, argues the second bite at the recusal apple will lead to a different outcome because now the connections between his upcoming trial — currently slated to begin on April 15 — and Merchan’s daughter’s business interests are more concrete.
“Your Honor’s daughter is an executive and partner at Authentic Campaigns, Inc.,” a letter by attorney Todd Blanche reads. “As recently as February and March 2024, Authentic has used social media to market its connections to President Biden and Vice President Harris while deriding President Trump. Authentic and Your Honor’s daughter are making money by supporting the creation and dissemination of campaign advocacy for President Trump’s opponent, political rivals, and the Democrat party. It can no longer be ignored that Authentic’s commercial interests are benefited by developments in this case that harm President Trump’s penal interests.”
Trump has not, however, filed the second recusal motion yet.
The 45th president’s attorneys must seek leave from Merchan to challenge the judge’s authority to oversee the case due to an earlier court ruling intended to tamp down on the number of docket entries. In that order, Merchan expressed disdain for defense efforts to increasingly delay the proceedings. In turn, he instructed both the defense and the state to file a one-page letter explaining why they needed to file any given motion before filing any additional motions.
The judge is now in the position of having to decide whether or not he will give the defense the formal opportunity to once again criticize his own daughter, at length, in at least one motion.
In their April 1 letter, the defense lawyers used a combination of broad strokes and specific allegations to press their case.
“According to flings with the Federal Election Commission, Authentic has received millions of dollars in disbursements from entities associated with President Trump’s political rivals since the Indictment was returned,” the defense letter continues. “Some of those funds were paid to Authentic by entities associated with legislators and PACs that have used email and/or social media to solicit contributions specifically based on this case. Thus, there is strong evidence that Authentic has used this case to make money.”
Bragg’s office ridiculed those alleged connections.
“Defendant’s own careful wording reveals the multiple attenuated factual leaps here that undercut any direct connection between Authentic and this case,” the reply reads. “Authentic has received money from ‘entities’; those entities are ‘associated with’ politicians; and those politicians have raised money based on this case. This daisy chain of innuendos is a far cry from evidence that this Court has ‘a direct, personal, substantial or pecuniary interest in reaching a particular conclusion.””
The defense, additionally, made reference to an X (formerly Twitter) account that recently used an image of Trump behind bars as its profile picture — but which changed its profile picture after being identified and attacked by Trump. That account was the subject of at least one incensed Trump post on Truth Social.
The defendant this week alleged the account was “used at some point” by Merchan’s daughter and accused Merchan of using the New York court system “to issue a statement” about the account — the court system claims that the account no longer belongs to her.
The district attorney’s office previously claimed the entire episode was “a fraudulent impersonation.” Prosecutors did not address the X account controversy in their Tuesday reply to the recusal letter.
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