Trump's DOJ targets hush-money judge's daughter in new wave of retribution

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with the media before boarding Marine One for travel to Florida from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 6, 2026. REUTERS Leah Millis

President Donald Trump’s grievance appears to be ongoing.

The New York Ties reports the president has had his U.S. attorney in Chicago trying to build a case against the judge who presided over Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, according to court filings and people familiar with the inquiry.

Trump’s politicized DOJ doesn’t appear ready to strike New York State Supreme Court acting Judge Juan Merchan directly, but the U.S. Attorney in Chicago is apparently hacking away at the Democratic fund-raising firm once co-owned by the daughter of the judge in that case.

Last August, the U.S. attorney, Andrew S. Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois, directed Authentic Campaigns Inc. to turn over a broad range of internal communications with clients, reports the Times. This included former Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Joe Biden, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), as well as the Democratic National Committee, according to a grand jury subpoena reviewed by The New York Times.

“Loren Merchan, the daughter of Juan Merchan, was the firm’s vice president until late 2024 and was also on the list. The Merchan family has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump and his allies, who have made unsubstantiated claims that the judge was out to get him and that his daughter profited from accusations aired at the trial,” reports the Times. “The trial ended with Mr. Trump’s conviction in 2024, in the midst of his campaign for a second term, on 34 felony counts stemming from his efforts to keep a porn star from publicizing her story of a liaison with him.”

Documents featuring Trump’s tell-tale signature and statements from his own attorney convinced a jury that Trump did indeed have a hand in the misdirection of money to the porn star’s silencing effort. Nevertheless, Trump called the trial an act of lawfare and a witch hunt.

“The firm’s legal team, which included Preet Bharara, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, sought to limit the request. Prosecutors eventually modified the subpoena, narrowing it to focus on a $468 payment from Ms. Harris’s presidential campaign, and emails between Ms. Merchan and her father, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal matter,” the Times reports, adding “it is not clear where the investigation stands. No follow-up subpoenas have been issued to individuals, including Ms. Merchan or Mr. Nellis, suggesting that prosecutors might not be actively working to charge anyone,” say sources.

“The Trump administration’s targeting of my company is an outrageous abuse of power,” Nellis told the Ties. “It is a ridiculous fishing expedition based on conspiracy theories that are completely divorced from reality.”

He then accused Trump’s DOJ of seeking to seize the “sensitive political communications of my clients who are among Trump’s most prominent political adversaries.”

The Times reports this inquiry is the latest indication of the extent to which U.S. attorneys across the country have increasingly been pulled into Trump’s crusade to target his adversaries.

“In this case, prosecutors sought the subpoena that came from a criminal referral from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. The panel made the referral after Mike Nellis, the founder of Authentic Campaigns, refused to provide the committee with confidential emails it was seeking, including those between Ms. Merchan and her father,” the Ties reports.

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