Hours after his court appearance in New York, Trump gave a speech at his Mar-a-Lago compound, bashing the judge and his wife and daughter.
Surrounded by American flags and supporters sporting red hats and campaign signs, Trump continued to attack the investigation into him, deny any wrongdoing, and criticize Judge Merchan and his family, according to the New York Times.
“I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for [Vice President] Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign,” Trump said.
Newsweek is reporting that Merchan’s daughter Loren is president of Authentic Campaigns, an agency that has worked with President Joe Biden, Harris, and other Democrats. However, both conservative and progressive lawyers have said this is not considered a conflict of interest for the judge.
Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, said that Trump’s comments about Judge Merchan were “appalling” and that heads of organized crime gangs would not behave in such a way.
“You do not have this behavior from a mob boss,” Weissmann told MSNBC. “There is a rule in organized crime. You do not do this with respect to prosecutors. You don’t do this with respect to the judge. You certainly don’t go after their families. It’s bad business to do that.”
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also accused the former president of purposely targeting the judge and his family with his words. “He is publicly intimidating a judge and pointing a spotlight on their family to his supporters—many of whom have admitted in court to committing violence in his name,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “He knows what he’s doing.”
“Because nothing says ‘innocent’ like threatening a judge’s family,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Let’s be very clear: intimidation and stochastic terror are the core tools of Trump and the fascist movements that support him.
While sharing a clip of Trump’s remarks at Mar-a-Lago, the Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) tweeted: “Make no mistake, Trump is trying to point his angry mob at the judge and his family. We all remember what happened when he pointed them at Congress.”
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles also denied that the former president had been threatening Mercan with his Truth Social posts, with Trump previously suggesting the judge “HATES ME.”
But “he is not going after the judge,” according to Necheles. “He commented that he thought there were some issues that he thought may cause a conflict. That’s not going after the judge,” Necheles said, per Newsweek.
“That’s not threatening the judge. He’s not going after the judge. He is angry because the DA brought a case that’s unjustified.”
