Justice Juan Merchan presides during a hearing, before the trial of former President Donald Trump, over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan state court, March 25, 2024.On a Wednesday afternoon earlier this month, Juan Merchan -- the New York judge who will preside over Donald Trump's"It really is my pleasure to grant the application to vacate the plea," Merchan told the defendant, Zenith Harper.
"He's perfect for that part, and I don't know that I would have thought that up front," said Patricia Bailey, a defense attorney who has handled cases in the mental health court. "He's smart, he's measured, he's calm, and he controls his courtroom, which -- as you can imagine with people who are suffering from a mental illness -- can sometimes get a little chaotic.
Trump grew up in the borough's Jamaica Estates neighborhood before attending the New York Military Academy then entering Fordham University for his undergraduate degree. Merchan became a judge in the Bronx Family Court in 2006 before moving to Manhattan Criminal Court in 2009. "He falls much more on the Kaplan side of the spectrum than on the Engoron side," said attorney and former diplomat Norm Eisen.Over the last month, Merchan has begun to show signs of frustration with Trump's attorneys, imposing restrictions on their pretrial filings and criticizing their recent effort to suggest prosecutors engaged in misconduct related to newly-discovered documents in the case.