Who is Juan Merchan, the judge in charge of Donald Trump's indictment?
Justice Juan Merchan, November 15, 2022. REUTERS - JANE ROSENBERG
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1 min
Donald Trump appears this Tuesday, April 4 in a court in Manhattan. He will be notified of the exact charges against him in the case of Stormy Daniels, named after this former porn actress to whom he paid a large sum of money, just before the presidential election of 2016, so that she stops claiming that they had slept together. Since the announcement of his indictment Thursday, March 30, Donald Trump, who is the first former president indicted in the history of the United States, multiplies criticism against the judge who should preside over the hearing.
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Juan Merchan is a judge of Colombian origin who has many years of experience in the New York courts where he has worked since the mid-2000s.
What Donald Trump accuses him of is having presided over the hearings in two cases whose outcome was unfavorable to the Trump Organization, the billionaire's historic company. In January, for example, the company was fined just over $1.5 million, the maximum amount allowed by law, for falsifying its accounts in order to pay less taxes.
Enough to make the former president say that the judge "hates him", message written in capital letters on his social network. This accusation is also in addition to the criticism he has constantly issued against the prosecutor in charge of the case, Alvin Bragg, and his rowdy statements, ensuring that he is the victim of a witch hunt, and a politicized justice, which would seek to hinder his candidacy for the presidential election of 2024.
► READ ALSO: United States: effervescence in New York before the historic appearance of Trump in court
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