Attorney and legal analyst Andrew Weissmann highlighted on Friday what he called a “tell” in Donald Trump’s motion to recuse Judge Juan Merchan from his Manhattan hush money case—one that might suggest it’s not a sturdy ground.
Trump is facing criminal charges in New York City from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg surrounding allegations that he illegally falsified business records in order to conceal “hush money” payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The payments were made to keep Daniels quiet about an affair she and Trump had in 2006. Trump has denied the affair ever happened and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
While some legal experts have called the Manhattan case the least notable of Trump’s criminal cases, it is now nevertheless the first one set to go to trial on Monday, April 15. Meanwhile, Trump has become increasingly aggressive on social media against Merchan who is overseeing the case, accusing him of being impartial and biased against him, and calling for his recusal. Merchan has issued a gag order against Trump amid these attacks, some of which have also targeted his daughter Loren Merchan, but the former president has continued to make them.
On Friday, a New York court allowed for a briefing in response to a motion from Trump’s legal team calling for Merchan’s recusal. The motion cites the judge’s daughter, who works extensively with high-level Democratic politicians, claiming that he cannot continue to oversee the case due to her allegedly benefitting professionally from Trump’s legal battles.
Mary Altaffer/Pool/Getty Images
Weissmann, the former general counsel for the FBI who also served as lead prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign, took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday to highlight a “tell” in the motion that might suggest that its legal grounding might not be firm: the fact that one of his key attorneys, Susan Necheles, did not sign it.
“The most interesting ‘tell’ about this new Trump recusal filing is that it is NOT signed by one of the Trump defense lawyers on the NY criminal case and is only signed by Todd Blanche,” he wrote. “That other lawyer, Susan Necheles, has not signed other submissions as well.”
This observation was co-signed by Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the Obama administration and legal analyst, in her own X post highlighting Necheles’ local reputation.
“Interesting when the highly regarded local lawyer declines to sign on,” she wrote.
Newsweek reached out to Necheles’ office via email for comment on Saturday afternoon.
Necheles had previously defended The Trump Organization in a tax fraud case brought by Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. The company was convicted of all 17 felony counts and fined $1.6 million in January 2023.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.