September 7th, 2024
By Greg Norman
Rep. Elise Stefanik has filed an ethics complaint against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan “for his illegal conflict of interest in the sham Manhattan trial against President Trump,” alleging the Harris campaign has a “newly active financial relationship” with a company led in part by his daughter.
The filing with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct came on the same day that Merchan decided to postpone Trump’s sentencing in New York v. Trump until after the November presidential election.
Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, following a six-week trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation.
However, Stefanik, R-N.Y., is now asking the Commission to launch a “fresh inquiry concerning Justice Merchan’s conflict and take any appropriate action resulting from it.”
“On August 20, 2024, Vice President Harris’s campaign submitted its first Federal Election Commission (FEC) report that documented expenses and donations through July 31, 2024. In the report… a July 30, 2024, disbursement appears in the amount of $468.00 from Vice President Harris’s campaign to Authentic Campaigns Inc. (Authentic) for web hosting services,” Stefanik wrote in her complaint. “This indicates that one of the very first things that Harris did upon taking over the Biden campaign infrastructure is to hire this firm, Authentic.
“Authentic is a digital consulting and marketing firm that services Democrat candidates. Loren Merchan, Justice Merchan’s daughter, is its president,” Stefanik added. “Vice President Harris changed web hosting companies from AWS to Authentic immediately after becoming the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee.
“This is merely the beginning of a new contract with a new campaign, regardless of the amount reimbursed. Sure, there’s an immediate benefit, but this is a play at a potential larger benefit for Authentic and Merchan down the road,” Stefanik said in her complaint.
Stefanik continued by saying that the code of conduct “dictates that a judge must recuse from a case where a relative up to and including the sixth degree has a financial interest in the outcome of the case.”
“Ms. Merchan is related to Justice Merchan in the first degree. Authentic has a newly active financial relationship with Vice President Harris’s campaign,” Stefanik concluded.
The Harris campaign and the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment from Fox NewsDigital.
