Merchan said he wanted to keep politics out of the trial, which he conducted with a largely even-tempered and kindly tone. The defense sought a mistrial over the issue Merchan said no. The judge said it was “only fair” because the defense summation had mentioned Trump repeatedly. But when it came time for closing arguments, Merchan let prosecutors claim that Trump knew about the tax-cheating maneuvers. Trump himself was not charged in that case. A jury convicted the company, and Merchan imposed a $1.6 million fine - the legal maximum. The Trump Organization went to trial, saying that the company didn’t benefit from Weisselberg’s scheme and that Trump and his family knew nothing about it. “He was mindful of the role my colleagues and I played as advocates, treating us with the utmost respect both in open court and behind closed doors,” Gravante recalled. Nicholas Gravante, who represented Weisselberg in the plea negotiations, said Merchan was “a real listener, well-prepared, always accessible, and a man who kept his word.” Nonetheless, he kept his sentencing promise. “So many Americans work so hard with the hopes that they may someday benefit from their contributions to Social Security,” the judge observed. He was a Manhattan prosecutor and worked in the state attorney general’s office before then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him as a family court judge in 2006. The first member of his family to go to college, he worked his way through school and went on to earn a law degree from Hofstra University in 1994. The Colombian-born Merchan, 60, emigrated as a 6-year-old and grew up in New York City. Merchan also often handles financial cases. He got Trump’s case because of a rotation in which judges are assigned to oversee grand juries and any cases that arise from them, according to the court system. Merchan did not respond to a message seeking comment sent through court officials. “It’s a logistical nightmare, from a judge’s perspective,” said Puryear, now a defense lawyer in Lubbock. If politics make for one headache, another is balancing the need for openness against courtroom security for the former president and others, said Geoffrey Puryear, a former state court judge in Texas. “You want to make sure that you are staying away from all the politics, because it is only about the law.” It has to be fair, the public has to know it’s fair, and then the outcome is the outcome,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure here because this is a novelty,” said Patricia Brown Holmes, a former state court judge in Illinois, who is now in private practice in Chicago.Īs a judge, “you have to do it right.
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