Trump Again Attacks Judge Merchan's Daughter -- This Time By Name

The ex-president's attacks Loren Merchan are likely due to her work as a political consultant. Her firm, Authentic Campaigns, has performed services for various high-profile Democratic clients including the Biden-Harris campaign. The company's website also features a testimonial from Schiff.

However, Trump's suggestion that Loren Merchan's political work is playing a role in how her father handles cases in his courtroom is unproven, as is his argument that she currently works for Biden. Earlier this week, NBC News reported that "There’s no available evidence to suggest that Merchan’s daughter has done any subsequent work for Biden and no evidence to suggest that she ‘now’ works for a Biden political operation."

Another major sticking point for Trump in his attacks on Merchan's daughter revolve around an account on X/Twitter with the handle @LorenM426, whose profile avatar is a photo of Trump behind prison bars. However, the Hill reported that Loren Merchan deleted the account more than a year ago. The New York Office of Court Administration (OCA) stated that the account has a different owner.

"It is not linked to her email address, nor has she posted under that screenname since she deleted the account," OCA spokesperson Al Baker said. “Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she long ago abandoned.”

Judge Merchan is overseeing Trump's first scheduled criminal trial, in which the former president is defending himself against 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg aims to prove to the jury that the $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star and director Stormy Daniels was an illegal campaign expenditure, as the money was intended to buy her silence in advance of the 2016 presidential election.

While the trial was intiially planned to begin on March 25, the jury selection process was moved to April, after a last-minute document dump from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). In January, Trump requested records from the SDNY pertaining to its prosecution of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 for his role in the hush money scheme, as well as for tax evasion. SDNY released more than 200,000 pages of documents in relation to Trump's request, prompting his attorneys to request a 90-day delay in proceedings. Bragg countered with a 30-day delay. Merchan ruled that the trial would instead start on April 15.