Judge Juan Merchan, who presides over President Trump’s New York criminal hush-money trial, rejected the 45th president’s third request to recuse himself from the case on Wednesday. Unless the judge dismisses the case altogether, Trump, who was convicted of all 34 felony counts in the case this spring, will most likely face sentencing in mid September. 

After citing the defense’s previous recusal bids, the judge ruled “for the third time,” that stepping away from the case is “not necessary, much less required” in a decision published Wednesday morning.  

Trump’s defense attorneys first asked the judge to recuse himself in May 2023, a year before the historic trial, brought against the former president by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, had even begun, citing what they argued was a serious conflict of interest regarding the judge’s adult daughter, Loren Merchan.              

Ms. Merchan works as a political consultant at the digital agency Authentic, and has done campaign work for some of Trump’s most devout adversaries, including Representative Adam Schiff and the vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. The defense argued Ms. Merchan’s work “creates an actual or perceived conflict of interest because rulings and decisions” made by the judge, her father, “may result in a financial benefit” for the judge’s family member.

The judge rejected the request, asserting that he had consulted with New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which found that his daughter’s work did not impact his impartiality and ability to rule. The committee opined that “a judge’s relatives remain free to engage in their own bona fide independent political activities” and that “the matter currently before the judge does not involve either the judge’s relative or the relative’s business, whether directly or indirectly,” the judge reiterated in his decision.  

Insisting that the judge is “highly-conflicted”, as Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung recently said, the defense later filed a second motion, which the judge also denied directly from the bench in his courtroom. 

After Ms. Harris became the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party, defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove urged the judge for a third time to step aside, stating the reasons had become “even more concrete,” and that his decisions and “any sentencing would benefit not only Harris but also the professional aspirations and financial status of Your Honor’s daughter and Authentic—all in a manner consistent with the prohibited political contributions by Your Honor that led to a caution from the Commission on Judicial Conduct,” the defense attorneys wrote.  

The “prohibited political contributions” the defense referenced was a $35 donation to Democratic causes, including a $15 donation to President’s Biden’s 2020 campaign, made by Judge Merchan before he became engaged in Trump’s hush-money case. Ethics rules strictly prohibit judges from making any political donations. The complaint against Judge Merchan was reviewed and he was issued a warning, but was allowed to to remain on the case.

The district attorney’s office called the defense’s recusal motion, “a vexatious and frivolous attempt to relitigate an issue that was twice addressed by this Court in orders that the First Department then refused to disturb,” referring to a mid-level appeals court, which denied Trump’s attempt to appeal the judge’s ruling.      

On Tuesday, the founder of Authentic Campaigns Inc., the digital agency where Ms. Merchan works, Mike Nellis, published a letter to the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, on X, formally Twitter, calling allegations the Republican-led committee made about his agency “absurd and completely false,” and citing harassment and death threats against “our employees.” 

“I’m speaking up today because on August 1st, Jim Jordan and the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee opened a partisan investigation into Authentic,” Mr. Nellis wrote and posted the letter underneath his comments.  

According to Mr. Nellis, Ms. Merchan “is a minority partner at Authentic and was not a partner during the Harris campaign in 2019.” Instead, Mr. Nellis “was the primary point of contact” and although Ms. Merchan “may have interacted with the candidate on occasion… they never never developed an individual relationship.” Furthermore, Authentic has not worked on Ms. Harris’ current campaign, and neither Ms.Merchan nor his firm benefit “financially from any rulings in Donald Trump’s criminal or civil trials,” Mr. Nellis’ letter claims.   

Trump did not mention Ms. Merchan’s name in his comments on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday. The former president and current Republican nominee is still bound by the gag order, imposed on him by Judge Merchan, which prohibits him from making public statements about the court staff, counsel, as well as family members of the district attorney and the judge. 

“Judge Merchan just ruled that I, the Republican candidate for President, and leading in the Polls, am still under a Gag Order CONCERNING VERY IMPORTANT THINGS WHICH MUST BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT. I AM NOT ALLOWED TO ANSWER REPORTERS QUESTIONS,” Trump wrote on Wednesday. 

He added, “Can you believe this? The New York Courts refuse to act. This is happening right before the voting begins on September 6th. Suppression and manipulation of the vote. Voter interference. This is the real Fascist ‘stuff,’ the old Soviet Union! So much to say, and I’m not allowed to say it. Must get U.S. Supreme Court involved. New York is trying to steal the Election!” 

The judge dismissed the defense’s arguments that the gag order is “unjust and unconstitutional.” He called them “an attempt to air grievances against this Court’s rulings,” and found that the gag order debate was not relevant in a motion seeking his recusal. 

Judge Merchan concluded that he will remain on the case, and continue “to base his rulings on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence.” 

When Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, he became the first former president in the history of America with a felony conviction, after Mr. Bragg had charged him with falsification of business records in a scheme to interfere with the 2016 election. At the heart of the case was a $130,000 hush-money payment that Trump’s then personal attorney, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in 2016 to buy her silence about her claim that she had a single sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006. The prosecution accused Trump of directing Cohen to wire the money to Ms. Clifford and then disguising his reimbursement to Cohen as a legal fee. Trump denies all charges and says he never had sex with Ms. Clifford. 

After Trump filed a petition to dismiss the entire case in light of the historic Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, the judge moved the sentencing, which was originally scheduled to take place in July, to September 18. 

In the meantime, America First Legal (AFL), led by President Trump’s longtime adviser, Stephen Miller, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Bragg on Tuesday, alleging the district attorney is withholding records related to the criminal case. Mr. Miller is seeking information about whether the Biden White House coordinated with Mr. Bragg in his prosecution of Trump.

The lawsuit, filed in New York’s Supreme Court, “arises from the Respondents’ repeated denial of multiple FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests seeking information and records related to, inter alia, communications between the Respondents and the Biden-Harris Administration, communications related to President Donald Trump J. Trump, and communications related to Judge Juan Merchan,” the petition states. 

“There should be nothing to hide,” AFL Vice President Daniel Epstein said in a statement. “If improper ex parte communications influenced what is supposed to be nonpartisan prosecutorial conduct, all Americans are at risk.”