Judge Juan Merchan, a 60-year-old Colombian lawyer who moved to the US at age 8, charged Donald Trump with 34 counts of “first degree falsification of corporate records” for paying three times to cover up information. It is not the first time that the magistrate and the politician have run into each other in court.

In 2022, Merchan presided over the tax fraud trial that led to the conviction of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. But beyond that, this New York Supreme Court judge is also leading a criminal case against the former president’s close ally, Steve Bannon, who has been charged with fraud and money laundering in connection with a charity he allegedly helped build. the United States.

Trump recently posted a message about Merchan on his social media platform Truth Social. “The judge assigned to my witch hunt hates me.”. “This is Juan Manuel Mercchán, handpicked by New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg and his accusers (…) Merchán treated my companies, which never came to an ‘agreement’, with real anger. It’s a shame,” said the former president, who on Tuesday pleaded “not guilty” to the charges brought by the Manhattan court for several payments to conceal information.

According to The New York Timesthe judge’s father, who served as a military officer in Colombia and was part of the intelligence community, devoted himself to washing dishes in Manhattan, while his mother worked in zipper and toy factories.

While the current judge was busy loading food, washing dishes in restaurants and delivering meat during his youth. Later he was night manager of a hotel. According to him New York Law JournalMerchán graduated from Baruch College in 1990 with a business degree and then graduated from Hofstra University School of Law in 1994.

He spent several years in the New York County District Attorney’s Office before becoming Nassau County’s deputy deputy attorney general in 1999. He then served as an assistant attorney general in Nassau and Suffolk counties before being appointed a judge in the Bronx County Family Court in 2006.

Since 2009, he has been a judge on the New York County Supreme Court, presiding over criminal cases.

“He is a serious, intelligent and level-headed lawyer,” he said NBCNews Manhattan attorney Ron Kuby. “He is not one of those judges who shouts at lawyers, and is characterized as a no-nonsense judge. But he’s always in control of the courtroom.”

Mercan has been presiding over high-profile cases in the district since 2012 and will now handle them one of the most iconic cases in American history.