Juan Merchan

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Juan Manuel Merchan (born 1962/1963) is an American judge and former prosecutor. He is an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County (Manhattan ). He presided over the 2024 criminal trial of former US president Donald Trump , in which Trump was found guilty by the jury.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education

• 2 Career as prosecutor

• 3 Career as judge

  • 3.1 First criminal trial of a former president

  • 3.2 Other notable cases

• 4 Political views

• 5 See also

• 6 References

Early life and education

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Merchan was born in Bogotá , Colombia. He immigrated to New York City when he was six years old, growing up in Jackson Heights , Queens, as the youngest of six children. His father had been a military officer in Colombia. Merchan studied business at Baruch College in Manhattan, graduating in 1990, and earned his Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law on Long Island in 1994. He was the first member of his family to go to college.

Career as prosecutor

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In 1994, Merchan began his career as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan district attorney's office . He worked in the office's Trial Division and Investigations Division, prosecuting financial frauds and other cases. From 1999 to 2006, he worked for the New York State Attorney General 's office, first as Deputy Attorney General in-Charge, Nassau County Region (1999–2001), then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge of Affirmative Litigation for Nassau and Suffolk Counties (2003–2006), and then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge Nassau County Region (2003–2006).

Career as judge

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Merchan became a judge in 2006 when New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to the New York City Family Court , Bronx County . He remained in that role until 2009. Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau appointed Merchan as Acting Justice in the Supreme Court of New York , New York County , Criminal, in 2009, and he has been in that position since that time. Merchan presides over felony criminal trials. Merchan also previously served concurrently as a judge of the New York Court of Claims , being appointed to that role by Governor David Paterson in 2009 and serving until 2018.

First criminal trial of a former president

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Justice Merchan was the judge in _The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump _, concerning former U.S. president Donald Trump, who was criminally indicted on 34 felony counts, making Merchan the first judge in history to preside in the criminal indictment of a US president. The indictment of Trump was delivered by a grand jury on March 30, 2023.

It was unsealed the same day, with Trump pleading not guilty. The jury trial began on April 15, 2024, and on April 30, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court , making him the first judge in history to hold a US President in criminal contempt of court.

During the trial, former President Donald Trump called Merchan's daughter, who heads a digital marketing agency that works with Democratic Party candidates and non-profits,

"a rabid Trump hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me." Trump demanded a new judge, but prosecutors asserted that Trump’s allegation amounted to a "daisy chain of innuendos [that] is a far cry from evidence," and Merchan did not recuse himself from the case.

Reactions to Merchan’s management of this Trump trial were varied. For example, on May 21, 2024, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York filed an ethics complaint against Merchan, alleging a conflict of interest.

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