Trump Rages Against ‘Fascist’ Judge Who Just Shot Down His Claims as ‘Rife With Inaccuracies’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Former President Donald Trump took to TruthSocial Wednesday to unleash a scathing public attack on Justice Juan M. Merchan, calling the judge’s third refusal to recuse himself from overseeing his criminal hush money case “real Fascist ‘stuff.’”

Trump’s rant followed Justice Merchan’s 3-page decision on Tuesday. The former president’s legal team claimed a conflict of interest, arguing that Merchan’s daughter had a “long-standing and extremely beneficial” relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris through her work for marketing agency Authentic Campaigns, which has worked with Democratic campaigns, including Harris’s 2020 campaign.

The judge dismissed the claims as “stale and unsubstantiated” as well as “rife with inaccuracies.”

Justice Merchan, according to the New York Times, is a Democrat but once a registered Republican, but cited a state advisory committee on judicial ethics, which concluded that his impartiality could not be questioned based on his daughter’s associations or actions.

The ruling rebuked the Trump team’s recusal request as “a vexatious and frivolous attempt to relitigate” an already settled issue.

“Innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” the judge wrote. “Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”

Protesting the decision as well as the gag order he is under, Trump lashed out in a public attack online on Wednesday alleging a rigged system. He wrote:

Judge Merchant [sic] just ruled that I, the Republican candidate for President, and leading in the Polls, am still under a Gag Order CONCERNING VERY IMPORTANT THINGS WHICH MUST BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT. I AM NOT ALLOWED TO ANSWER REPORTERS QUESTIONS. Can you believe this? The New York Courts refuse to act. This is happening right before the voting begins on September 6th. Suppression and manipulation of the vote. Voter interference. This is the real Fascist “stuff,” the old Soviet Union! So much to say, and I’m not allowed to say it. Must get U.S. Supreme Court involved. New York is trying to steal the Election!

Justice Merchan is set to rule on Trump’s immunity motion on September 16, a decision that could significantly impact the former president’s legal fate. If the motion is denied, Trump faces sentencing just days later. He faces up to four years in prison.