The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the company that employs the daughter of New York Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial.
The subpoena escalates a brewing battle between the panel’s Subcommittee on Weaponization and Authentic Campaigns, after it rebuffed lawmaker demands to turn over any communications the company had with Merchan, noting they simply don’t exist.
The letter from Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asks CEO Mike Nellis to sit for the deposition with the company and sign a sworn affidavit that the company never communicated with Merchan.
Nellis had previously mocked Jordan, calling it absurd to suggest that as a company they would have any dealings with an employee’s parent and also noting that the firm does not perform services for either the Biden or Harris campaigns and its political work has no connection to the outcome of Trump’s hush money trial.
Jordan on Wednesday nonetheless asked for a sworn affidavit that the company combed their records for any relevant communications dealing with Trump’s prosecution.
“If Authentic Campaigns indeed has no responsive records for the other requests made by the Committee on August 1, as you have asserted, the Committee requests a sworn certification under the penalty of perjury that Authentic Campaigns made a reasonable, diligent, and good faith search for responsive documents and was unable to locate any responsive documents,” Jordan wrote.
Nellis on Wednesday shared a copy of the subpoena online and called Jordan’s subpoena an intimidation tactic.
“This is yet another abuse of power, aimed at promoting a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that links our company, Authentic, to Donald Trump’s fraud trial,” Nellis wrote on X.
“Let us be clear: these allegations against our company are completely false and purely politically motivated. This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and divert attention from Donald Trump’s conviction. We refuse to be bullied, and we will not allow House Republicans or MAGA extremists to spread lies about our work.”
Merchan’s daughter, Loren, has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire, given her work on campaigns for top Democrats including Vice President Harris and President Biden. Loren Merchan’s work has repeatedly been raised in efforts to force her father to recuse from Trump’s New York case.
Merchan has rejected three requests by Trump to recuse, most recently earlier this month after the former president’s legal team suggested Loren Merchan’s work for Harris constituted a new reason for the judge to step aside. The judge has insisted that his daughter’s work presents no conflict and said he has consulted the state’s judicial ethics advisory committee.
“Stated plainly, Defendant’s arguments are nothing more than a repetition of stale and unsubstantiated claims,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.
The former president is barred from making public comments about the family members of Merchan or prosecutors in his New York case, though the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) remain fair game.
Jordan has conducted a number of inquiries targeting those prosecuting Trump or otherwise connected to them, likewise igniting a probe into Bragg as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who has filed election interference-related charges against Trump in Georgia.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, made to an adult film actress to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 election about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.
The former president is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18, if Merchan determines the hearing can go forward in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
