4th April, 2023
When former US President, Donald Trump enters the Manhattan court in New York today, he will be appearing before Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, Acting Justice in the New York State Supreme Court.
He will decide Trump’s fate in the historic criminal indictment of the former president.
Trump will appear to answer charges arising from a grand jury investigation into payments made during his 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters with Stormy Daniels.
Who is Judge Merchan?
1. Merchan is an acting justice in the New York State Supreme Court.
2. He oversaw the grand jury that indicted Trump on March 30th, 2023.
3. Merchan was a former prosecutor with 16 years on the bench
4. He also presided over the Trump Organization criminal case in which the organization was found guilty of 17 criminal counts and Trump’s former financial chief Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to his role in a 15-year-long tax-fraud scheme.
5. Merchan also presided over the 2022 criminal trial of Steve Bannon for fraud and money laundering.
6. Merchan was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1963 and emigrated to New York City when he was six years old, growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, as the youngest of six children.
7. He studied business at Baruch College in Manhattan, graduating in 1990, and earned his law degree from Hofstra University on Long Island in 1994.
8. Merchan was first appointed as a judge in 2006 and has been an acting justice in the Supreme Court, New York County, Criminal, since 2009.