(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have re-hired the marketing company run by the daughter of Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, renewing scrutiny for the leftist judge.
On Friday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., filed an ethics complaint to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, calling out Loren Merchan’s renewed financial entanglements with the Harris campaign.
According to Stefanik, the Harris campaign paid $468 to Authentic Campaigns shortly after the vice president inherited the campaign apparatus of President Joe Biden.
Merchan presides over the Manhattan criminal case against President Donald Trump, brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Loren’s financial ties to both Biden and Harris have drawn criticism over the integrity of the case, leading to growing calls for Judge Merchan’s immediate recusal.
🚨🚨🚨 Today I filed a new judicial ethics complaint with the New York State Commission because new evidence on Kamala Harris’ most recent FEC filing shows she hired and paid Acting Justice Juan Merchan’s adult daughter’s company. This is a clear violation of the New York State… pic.twitter.com/Il7PwjSXIR
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) September 6, 2024
The FEC report’s filing, which was not public until Aug. 20, showed a transaction for web hosting services, suggesting a potential contract between Harris and Authentic.
Stefanik pointed out that Harris shifted her campaign’s web hosting from Amazon Web Services to Authentic.
“As the FEC report’s filing did not occur until August 20, nearly a month after the Harris campaign and Authentic had begun doing business, no one in the public, including the Commission, could have known of the relationship,” Stanik wrote in the two-page letter.
Stefanik argues that the new contract represents a conflict of interest that warrants a new investigation. The commission had previously rejected an earlier demand from Stefanik.
“This is merely the beginning of a new contract with a new campaign, regardless of the amount reimbursed. Sure, there’s an immediate benefit, but this is a play at a potential larger benefit for Authentic and Merchan down the road,” Stefanik warned.
During the 2020 Democratic primary, Harris’s campaign paid roughly $7 million to Authentic.
The concern is that Authentic could profit from the sentencing, as it has helped fundraise for Democrats in past criminal cases involving Trump.
