It was an explosive declare from Donald J. Trump, simply weeks earlier than his Manhattan prison trial is ready to start: He assailed the decide’s daughter on Wednesday, saying she had used a picture of the former president behind bars as a social media profile image.
The picture made it “utterly unattainable for me to get a good trial,” Mr. Trump wrote on Reality Social. He demanded that the decide, Juan M. Merchan, recuse himself.
However there was an issue along with his declare: The New York State Court docket system says the account on X is bogus.
Though the deal with as soon as belonged to the decide’s daughter, Loren Merchan, she deleted it a few 12 months in the past, a courtroom spokesman stated. Another person — it’s unclear who — has since taken it over. Its profile image is now a childhood portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The X, previously Twitter, account being attributed to Decide Merchan’s daughter now not belongs to her,” stated Al Baker, the spokesman for the state’s Workplace of Court docket Administration. “It isn’t linked to her e mail deal with, nor has she posted underneath that display title since she deleted the account. Fairly, it represents the reconstitution, final April, and manipulation of an account she way back deserted.”
It’s hardly the one on-line hoax that Mr. Trump has promoted through the years, however unleashing apparently false claims regarding the decide’s daughter simply weeks earlier than the trial begins represents an escalation on his half.
It got here a day after Justice Merchan imposed a gag order on Mr. Trump, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and courtroom workers. Notably, the decide and his household should not included within the gag order.
And Mr. Trump wasted no time attacking the decide, who’s a Democrat, and his household: “If the Biased and Conflicted Decide is allowed to remain on this Sham ‘Case,’ will probably be one other unhappy instance of our Nation turning into a Banana Republic,” Mr. Trump wrote within the social media submit on Wednesday.
Neither a spokesman for the Trump marketing campaign nor Ms. Merchan instantly returned request for feedback on Wednesday night.
Ms. Merchan has labored as an govt at Genuine, a digital advertising company that works with Democratic candidates. Mr. Trump’s legal professionals final 12 months argued that Justice Merchan ought to recuse himself, claiming that his daughter stood to learn financially from his selections. The decide declined, citing a state advisory committee on judicial ethics, which decided that his impartiality couldn’t “moderately be questioned.”
The trial, which can start on April 15, will give attention to what prosecutors say was Mr. Trump’s effort to cowl up a intercourse scandal throughout and after the 2016 presidential marketing campaign. The Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace charged Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, with 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information.
On Monday, Justice Merchan seemingly swept away the final obstacles to an April trial, dismissing an try by the protection to delay and even dismiss the case. Mr. Trump can be the primary former American president to face trial on prison fees.
Ms. Merchan is simply the newest lady to really feel the sting of Mr. Trump’s invective. In his civil fraud trial final 12 months, Mr. Trump took purpose on the decide’s principal regulation clerk, claiming falsely that she was Senator Chuck Schumer’s “girlfriend.”
The decide, Arthur F. Engoron, instituted a restricted gag order on Mr. Trump, stopping him from commenting on courtroom workers.
Mr. Trump twice violated the order, leading to $15,000 in fines.
Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.