Long Islander Juan Merchan to make history as he sentences President-elect Donald Trump in hush money case
State Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan sits for a portrait in his Manhattan chambers on March 14. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
Long Islander Juan M. Merchan is poised to go down in history as the judge who sentenced President-elect Donald Trump.
Merchan presided over Trump's historic five-week criminal trial that culminated in his conviction for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to an adult film actress during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Merchan has been on the bench for nearly 20 years.
Merchan is the first judge to preside over the criminal case and conviction of a former U.S. president and to hold him in criminal contempt of court.
Merchan is a veteran jurist with a reputation for being even-tempered, tough but fair, according to a flurry of interviews of lawyers who have worked with Merchan. He has been the subject of Trump's ire since he was first assigned to preside over the case.
"A Trump-hating judge," Trump has called Merchan, in one of many statements deriding the judge.
"Corrupt and highly conflicted," Trump said of Merchan at a campaign rally during his trial.
Merchan, who lives in Nassau County, has received scores of death threats following Trump's social media attacks, The Associated Press has reported.
Yet, he declined to recuse himself from presiding over the case as Trump’s legal team argued he should step away due to conflicts, including his adult daughter’s work with a Democratic consulting firm.
Merchan, who The New York Times has reported is a native of Colombia, grew up in Queens and graduated from Hofstra University School of Law in 1994.
He began his career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office that same year, according to his judicial directory page on the New York State Unified Court System website.
Merchan then worked as the deputy assistant attorney general in charge for the Nassau County region in 1999. He stayed at the attorney general's office working on Long Island cases until 2006.
He was first appointed to the bench by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006, serving in Family Court in the Bronx. In 2009, Gov. David Paterson appointed Merchan to the Court of Claims. That same year, he was appointed as an acting justice in Manhattan's Supreme Court, the felony-level trial court.
In presiding over the Trump trial, Merchan's prominence grew exponentially, although he had been on the bench for several other newsworthy cases.
Merchan presided over the trials of three men who parachuted off One World Trade Center in 2013 and the case of Anna Gristina, dubbed the “soccer mom madam” for allegedly running an Upper East Side prostitution ring catering to millionaire clients, which resulted in her 2012 guilty plea, according to the AP.
Merchan also oversaw the trial that found Trump’s real estate company guilty of tax fraud in 2022 and the guilty plea by Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who Merchan sentenced to 5 months in prison, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
In an interview last year with the AP, Merchan, who also presides over a once-a-week Mental Health Court for those with mental health issues, talked about the less glamorous parts of his job.
“We help a lot of people, but it’s hard work. ... You get really invested in people’s lives,” Merchan said.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
Missing girl suspect indicted ... Court declines to block Trump's sentencing ... L.A. devastating wildfires ... Head of Harbor dispute
Missing girl suspect indicted ... Court declines to block Trump's sentencing ... L.A. devastating wildfires ... Head of Harbor dispute
