BREAKING: Elise Stefanik demands judicial conduct board investigate Judge Juan Merchan over 'brand new conflict of interest'—his daughter works with Kamala's campaign

House Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has demanded that a new ethics probe surrounding a potential conflict of interests between Judge Juan Merchan and his daughter Loren Merchan be investigated. The request from GOP Chairwoman Stefanik to investigate Merchan’s potential conflict of interest Harris comes as the judge ruled to postpone Trump’s sentencing in the NYC falsified business documents case until after the election. 

According to a letter from Stefanik sent to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Judge Juan Merchan's daughter, who is the president of Authentic Campaigns Inc, may stand to benefit from the fraudulent business documents case involving GOP nominee Donald Trump.  

The letter reads, "On July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek a second term. Within a few days, Vice President Kamala Harris was anointed to become the Democrat Party’s nominee for the presidency. During his campaign, President Biden used one company, Amazon Web Services (AWS), for the campaign’s web hosting services. President Biden’s campaign paid AWS throughout 2023 through the suspension of his campaign in July 2024."

"On August 20, 2024, Vice President Harris’s campaign submitted its first Federal Election Commission (FEC) report that documented expenses and donations through July 31, 2024. In the report, specifically on Form 3P, line 232, a July 30, 2024, disbursement appears in the amount of $468.00 from Vice President Harris’s campaign to Authentic Campaigns Inc. (Authentic) for web hosting services. This indicates that one of the very first things that Harris did upon taking over the Biden campaign infrastructure is to hire this firm, Authentic," the letter added. 

Harris changed the web hosting companies from AWS to Authentic "immediately after becoming the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee." The letter added that this was a new contract with the Harris campaign and then stated, "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. 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. 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. Given this revelation of a brand-new conflict of interest for Judge Merchan, I respectfully request that the Commission engage in a fresh inquiry concerning Justice Merchan’s conflict and take any appropriate action resulting from it," Stefanik concluded.