MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann proclaimed he had a “man crush” on New York Judge Juan Merchan Wednesday as the jury in the business records trial of former President Donald Trump deliberated.
Merchan issued instructions to the jury of seven men and five women Wednesday, pointing them to some of the key evidence in the case. Weissman praised Merchan for his “judicial temperament” in handling the case.
“With respect to Judge Merchan, I mean, I am, like, now — you know, I have like a man crush on him,” Weissmann told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell less than half an hour after the jury began deliberating whether to convict Trump on some or all of the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records from an indictment secured by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
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“He is such a great judge that it’s hard to see that the jurors wouldn’t have the same impression,” Weissmann continued. “You just keep on thinking, if you looked in the dictionary for, like, judicial temperament, that’s what you’d get.”
Merchan has come under fire for a perceived bias against Trump in the case. He made a $15 donation to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and two $10 donations, one to a group dedicated to “resisting” the “right-wing legacy” of then-President Donald Trump and another to a “Progressive Turnout Project,” according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
Merchan also imposed an expanded gag order on April 1 after Trump criticized the judge’s daughter in multiple posts on Truth Social, including one linking to a New York Post report on Loren Merchan’s firm helping Democrats raise $93 million off the former president’s indictment in the business records case.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley criticized Merchan on May 10 for suggesting that former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg testify as prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to introduce Weisselberg’s severance package into evidence.
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