A former prosecutor has warned that it’s “troubling” a judge overseeing the case against former President Donald Trump appears to have made political donations to President Joe Biden’s campaign and other organizations.
Carol Lam, a former federal prosecutor in Southern California, told “MSNBC Reports” on Friday that Juan Merchan’s prior political contributions could pose an ethical issue for his continued handling of Trump’s case.
“I think the optics are a bit problematic,” Lam said. “To be clear, the donations were made in 2020 before Judge Merchan had either the Trump Organization case assigned to him, or obviously this case, but it is troubling optics, I think, for any judge to have made a political contribution, and then to have a party who is either the beneficiary or not the beneficiary of that political contribution before that judge in court. Now, it was a trivial amount of money, and this is a trial-level judge.”…