Ben Zeisloft at the Daily Wire (April 4, 2023) wrote that Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan would preside over the Manhattan case against Donald J. Trump, and that Merchan had already presided over the Trump Organization trial. The Daily Wire reported a $1.6 million fine — described there as the legal maximum — against the company, and a five-month sentence for former CFO Allen Weisselberg. Those figures are Daily Wire reporting of the prior docket. They are not re-decided here.
Fox News published a career recap of the same assignment. Everything you need to know about judge presiding over Trump’s legal case, Juan Merchan. Treat both pieces as reporting. They are not the indictment.
The later signed decision of February 15, 2024, recites the charging document this site will not invent: People v. Donald J. Trump, Indictment No. 71543/2023; thirty-four counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, Penal Law § 175.10; grand-jury indictment dated March 30, 2023. That is the court’s own recitation. The Daily Wire piece is how the assignment became a conservative-outlet story the week of arraignment.
Daily Wire also reported that Trump wrote on Truth Social that the assigned judge “hates” him. This site does not reconstruct the post. The Daily Wire article is the citation for that reported remark. A social-media insult is not a court finding. It is also not invented here.