AOC accuses Trump of putting ‘violent’ supporters on New York criminal trial: ‘He knows what he’s doing’
- AOC said the ex-president tried to intimidate the judge ruling his case.
- Merchan oversaw the tax fraud trial against the Trump Organization
- The 60-year-old Colombian-born lawyer came to the US at the age of six
Left-wing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of putting “violent” supporters on the judge who must decide his criminal case.
The New York firefighter, 33, also alleged that Trump “publicly intimidated” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan with a series of inflammatory remarks.
The former president called the top lawyer “a Trump-hating judge with the Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris.”
AOC said the real estate tycoon “publicly intimidates a judge and puts a spotlight on his supporters – many of whom have admitted in court to committing violence in his name.”
“He knows what he’s doing,” she added.
Leftist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump during his tenure in the White House. In a series of tweets in 2019, he had told AOC and other liberal female legislators known as the Squad to stop lecturing him about running the US government. Trump asked, “Why don’t they go back and help restore the utterly devastated and crime-ridden places they came from?”
Merchan, 60, had asked Trump to refrain from making statements that “incite violence or civil unrest.”
The former star of NBC’s “The Apprentice” pleaded not guilty to 34 separate charges Tuesday of falsifying business records.
According to court documents, prosecutors allege that Trump illegally wrote off hush money payments as business expenses to hide information that could have derailed his 2016 bid for the White House.
The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who Trump says just wants to end his latest presidential run.
Born in Colombia, Mercan emigrated at the age of six and grew up in New York City.
The first member of his family to attend college, he worked his way through school and then earned a law degree from Hofstra University in 1994.
He was a Manhattan district attorney and worked in the Attorney General’s Office before then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him as a family judge in 2006.
Judge Juan Merchan’s 34-year-old daughter, Loren, works for consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, whose past clients include Vice President Kamala Harris, the Biden-Harris campaign, California Governor Gavin Newsom and California Representative Adam Schiff
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, said on social media that his father was subjected to a “handpicked Democrat show trial.”
Trump himself attacked the judge and his family during his speech on Tuesday evening at his Mar-a-Lago estate, citing Loren Merchan’s previous advisory work for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump will appear in court in New York on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 for his arraignment. Judge Juan Merchan rules in a criminal case brought against Trump by the Manhattan DA for paying hush money to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign.
Merchan and his family have received “baseless threats” since the former president’s hearing on Tuesday, sources told the NBC news network.
There are ‘dozens; of such threats recently to the judge and his chambers.
One of Donald Trump’s lawyers, Joe Tacopina, said Wednesday that the former US president’s case “will not go to a jury.”
“I think this case will fall to its feet,” he said in an interview with NBC.
Trump is denying allegations of falsifying business records in a plan to cover up allegations of extramarital affairs involving ex-porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal that erupted during his first run at the White House.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement.