House Judiciary demands Judge Merchan's daughter reveal communications on her 'digital persuasion' firm's role with Biden, Harris campaigns, fundraising

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee demanded that Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter hand over documents related to her firm's communications with the Harris and Biden campaigns as well as materials related to the prosecution of Donald Trump in the falsified business records case in New York. In 2019, Loren Merchan,then-vice president of Authentic Campaigns, simultaneously served as the director of digital persuasion for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. 

The committee wrote, in a letter addressed to Loren Merchan, now president of the firm Authentic Campaigns, that the firm is connected politically to high-profile Democrats, including their presumptive nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The firm received $8 million from the campaign of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and payments from Rep. Dan Goldman (D-CA) and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). From January 1 to July 1, 2024, Democrats paid the firm $12.7 million, an 86 percent increase from the same period in 2022, according to Townhall. The Biden-Harris campaign also paid Authentic Campaigns millions of dollars in 2020 for “digital marketing and fundraising.”

According to the letter, “The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials. At a minimum, there is a perception that you and Authentic Campaigns could profit considerably from President Trump’s prosecution in a forum overseen by your father.”

The letter continued, “Experts have raised substantial concerns with Judge Merchan, your father, refusing to recuse himself from President Trump’s case despite your work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries.” The letter also noted that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s political persecution against Donald Trump was “a convoluted and novel legal theory” in a case that federal officials had already declined to pursue.

The House Judiciary Committee demanded that the firm submit to the committee: “All contracts and invoices referring or relating to work performed by Authentic Campaigns for or on behalf of the Biden for President campaign, the Harris for President campaign, or the Democratic National Committee for the period January 1, 2023, to the present.”

In addition, the committee wanted, “All documents and communications referring or relating to any work performed by Authentic Campaigns that refers to the indictment, prosecution, or conviction of President Donald J. Trump for the period April 1, 2023, to the present” and other materials. The House Judiciary set a deadline to turn in the documents by August 8.

This follows Trump’s legal team submitting an appeal to disqualify Judge Merchan from his New York criminal trial, which stated that the case was compromised due to the judge’s daughter’s ties to Democrats. Trump’s sentencing for his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records was postponed by Judge Merchan until September, a delay which critics believe is politically motivated.