Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) filed another ethics complaint against Judge Juan Merchan on Friday, accusing the acting Manhattan Supreme Court justice of a conflict of interest due to his daughter’s recent work for the Kamala Harris campaign.
Stefanik asked the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct to launch “a fresh inquiry” into a $468 payment from the Harris camp to Loren Merchan’s digital political consulting and marketing firm, Authentic Campaigns.
The transaction took place July 30, days after the suspension of President Biden’s re-election effort, and was “one of the very first things that Harris did upon taking over the Biden campaign infrastructure,” Stefanik said in the letter, which was first reported by NBC News.
The Biden campaign had not employed Authentic Campaigns, which assists Democratic candidates, “for web hosting services,” opting to use Amazon Web Services instead.
“This is merely the beginning of a new contract with a new campaign, regardless of the amount reimbursed,” Stefanik noted. “Sure, there’s an immediate benefit, but this is a play at a potential larger benefit for Authentic and Merchan down the road.”
As a result, the House Republican conference chairwoman argued the judge — who had been set to sentence former President Donald Trump in his “hush money” case on Sept. 18 — must recuse himself from the case.
“The Code of Conduct, specifically § 100.3(E)(1)(d)(iii), 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,” Stefanik added. “Ms. Merchan is related to Justice Merchan in the first degree.”
“Authentic has a newly active financial relationship with Vice President Harris’s campaign. President Trump’s sentencing, an event which will garner worldwide media coverage, is imminent,” she went on. “This event, a month and a half prior to the November 5 election, could have a profound impact on that election; indeed, some states will have commenced mail voting by that date.”
Federal Election Commission filings for the payment were submitted Aug. 20.
Within hours of Stefanik’s complaint being submitted, however, Merchan postponed Trump’s sentencing in the criminal case until Nov. 26 — exactly three weeks after the election.
Stefanik had previously filed a complaint with the inspector general of the New York State Unified Court System, alleging that Merchan’s selection to preside over the case was not “random at all,” given he was also tapped to oversee other cases involving Trump and criminal trials of other allies of the 45th president like Steve Bannon.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct previously investigated Merchan’s small-dollar donations to the 2020 Biden campaign, a progressive PAC and one of its anti-Republican subsidiaries.
The panel cleared the Manhattan judge of all wrongdoing last July, but warned that the grievance could be an issue in the event the judge faces a future misconduct allegation.
Trump, 78, was convicted May 30 of 34 felony counts related to falsification of business records as part of an effort to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her to keep quiet about an alleged decade-old affair in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The former president pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly denied the allegations, both before and after his conviction.
“The Commission on Judicial Conduct is constrained by a strict confidentiality statute and has no comment on this matter,” Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian told The Post in a statement Friday.
