Ste­fanik Files Com­plaint Over Trump Hush-Mon­ey Case, Ques­tions Whether Judge Selec­tion Was Ran­dom

Rep. Elise Ste­fanik (R‑NY) filed a com­plaint on Tues­day that raised doubts about whether the judge in for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump‘s hush-mon­ey tri­al had been ran­dom­ly select­ed for the case.
Rules for the New York State Tri­al Courts require crim­i­nal actions be assigned to a judge via “ran­dom selec­tion” autho­rized by the chief admin­is­tra­tor, Ste­fanik wrote in a let­ter. Yet Mer­chan is not only pre­sid­ing over Trump’s tri­al but also over­saw a crim­i­nal tri­al against the Trump Orga­ni­za­tion and will be pre­sid­ing over Trump ally Steve Bannon’s fraud tri­al.
Ste­fanik also point­ed out that Mer­chan has donat­ed to groups sup­port­ing Democ­rats and has a daugh­ter who is a polit­i­cal con­sul­tant with a record of doing w …