House Republicans subpoena consulting firm supposedly tied to Trump hush money judge

MANHATTAN (CN) — The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed the political consulting firm that it claims has conflicting ties with the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case.

Trump and some House Republicans have repeatedly bemoaned that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s daughter holds a leadership role at Authentic, a political consulting firm that has worked with Democratic candidates — including Trump’s 2024 presidential opponent Kamala Harris.

Suspecting that the tie could have created a conflict of interest for Merchan in Trump’s New York hush-money trial, the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday sent a subpoena to Authentic, demanding all company documents and communications that “refers to the indictment, prosecution, or conviction” of Trump.

The committee is also seeking any communications between Authentic and members of Merchan’s staff relating to Trump’s New York indictment.

Authentic’s founder Mike Nellis posted the subpoena to his X, formerly Twitter, account on Wednesday, where he called any speculation his firm could have played a role in the proceedings “completely false and purely politically motivated.”

“This is yet another abuse of power, aimed at promoting a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that links our company, Authentic, to Donald Trump’s fraud trial,” Nellis wrote. “This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and divert attention from Donald Trump’s conviction.”

Accompanying the subpoena was a five-page letter, obtained by Courthouse News, from committee chairman Representative Jim Jordan, which doubled down on the purported conflicts.

“One such conflict is Ms. Merchan’s — daughter of Judge Merchan and President of Authentic Campaigns — work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the possible financial benefit that Ms. Merchan and Authentic Campaigns received from the prosecution and conviction of President Trump,” Jordan wrote.

Jordan, an Ohio Republican, asked Nellis earlier this month to voluntarily hand over similar communications to those he’s now subpoenaing.

Nellis refused in his own Aug. 13 letter in response to Jordan’s voluntary request for materials, stating that “Authentic had no role, involvement, or influence whatsoever in those judicial proceedings, and the committee’s insinuations to the contrary have caused and continue to cause significant harm to Authentic and its employees.”

“The committee is left with no choice but to resort to compulsory process,” Jordan wrote Wednesday.

Nellis previously claimed that there is no legislative basis for the committee’s ongoing probe of his consulting firm. He likened it to mere political theater aimed at casting doubt over the validity of Trump’s criminal conviction in New York.

Jordan countered Wednesday that his committee is examining legislative reforms aimed at countering “politically motivated prosecutions” of U.S. presidents.

“Judge Merchan’s conflicts of interest and biases in the case against President Trump, the Republican nominee in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, implicate serious federal interests,” Jordan claimed. “Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents, especially in venues in which real or perceived biases exist.”

Trump himself has made similar arguments of political prosecution. Throughout the trial, he raised baseless speculations that Merchan’s daughter was influencing the proceedings to benefit Democrats because of her role as Authentic’s president.

He even made those claims in court documents, arguing that Merchan should recuse himself for the purported conflicts of interest. All three of the recusal motions he filed against the judge failed.

As it stands, the speculations from Trump and the Judiciary Committee remain fruitless. In 2023, a New York judicial ethics panel ruled that Merchan’s daughter’s work for Authentic is not a conflict that warrants the judge’s recusal.

Merchan is due to sentence Trump on Sept. 18 for 34 charges of falsifying business records after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all counts of orchestrating an illegal hush money scheme centered on his first presidential run.

The jury ruled that Trump ordered his then-attorney Michael Cohen to pay $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 — hush money to keep her from telling the press about a tryst she had with Trump 10 years earlier. Trump then forged business records to repay Cohen, falsely labeling invoices, leger entries and checks as payments for standard legal fees.

Trump continues to deny the conviction’s legitimacy, and is currently attempting to delay his sentencing until after November’s presidential election.

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