New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said former president Donald Trump was “intimidating” a judge during a speech Tuesday night.
Trump suggested Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in his Tuesday arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom, was a “Trump hating judge.”
“He is publicly intimidating a judge and pointing a spotlight on their family to his supporters – many of whom have admitted in court to committing violence in his name,” Ocasio-Cortez said of Trump’s Tuesday speech from Mar-a-Lago.
“He knows what he’s doing.”
He is publicly intimidating a judge and pointing a spotlight on their family to his supporters – many of whom have admitted in court to committing violence in his name.
He knows what he’s doing. https://t.co/HSeqCzeOa9
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 5, 2023
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez commented on Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet sharing a Breitbart article discussing judge Merchan’s daughter Loren’s business dealings with Vice President Kamala Harris and subsequent work with the Biden-Harris campaign.
Critics of the former president’s son claimed Donald Jr., along with brother Eric, shared images of Loren Merchan in an attempt to “intimidate” judge Merchan. The image of Loren Merchan was featured in Breitbart’s article, however, and the substance of Donald Jr.’s post was in reference to the story within the outlet’s article.
Eric Trump similarly shared an article by the Gateway Pundit, who originally reported on Loren Merchan’s business dealings, though the tweet has since been deleted.
The New York representative followed fellow critics of the former president’s sons, referring to their posts as “intimidation and stochastic terror.”
“Nothing says ‘innocent’ like threatening a judge’s family,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez in response to a critic of Donald Trump Jr.
“Let’s be very clear: intimidation and stochastic terror are the core tools of Trump and the fascist movements that support him,” she continued in a follow up post. “They rely on it to skirt consequences and silence others – and each time it works, they grow more brazen.”
“One reason why accountability is so important.”
Let’s be very clear: intimidation and stochastic terror are the core tools of Trump and the fascist movements that support him.
They rely on it to skirt consequence and silence others – and each time it works, they grow more brazen. One reason why accountability is so important
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 4, 2023
Loren Merchan currently serves as the president and partner of Authentic Campaigns which runs digital campaigns for Democratic candidates, according to her LinkedIn account which appears to have been scrubbed following the Gateway Pundit’s initial reporting on the story.
Clients for Authentic Campaigns include the Biden-Harris campaign, Corey Booker’s Senate Campaign, and Gavin Newsom for Governor among other progressive campaigns.
According to Loren’s archived LinkedIn page, she previously worked as the “Director of Digital Persuasion” for “Kamala Harris for the People” from February 2019 to December 2019.
Judge Merchan previously presided over a Trump-related case regarding the Trump Organization and former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Merchan declined to allow Trump Organization’s attorneys to accuse prosecutors of targeting the company out of animosity for the former president, CBS News reported.
“I will not allow you in any way to bring up a selective prosecution claim, or claim this is some sort of novel prosecution,” he reportedly said, adding he would “have very little patience at trial [for] any questions that are not in a good faith basis.”
Trump commented on Judge Merchan and his daughter last night in a speech from Mar-a-Lago following his arraignment in Manhattan, New York.
“This is where we are right now,” the former president said Tuesday night. “I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and a Trump-hating family whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris, and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign.”
