Rep. Stefanik pushes to investigate judge handling Trump's criminal trial

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is pushing to investigate the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal case in New York.

Stefanik filed an ethics complaint on Friday to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Judge Juan Merchan. She had previously filed an inquiry request that the commission rejected, according to the Washington Examiner. 

Trump has twice demanded that New York Judge Merchan be recused from his criminal trial, arguing that Merchan has a conflict of interest because his daughter worked for a Democratic consulting group and has represented politicians such as Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Stefanik's complaint says that the state code of conduct "dictates that a judge must recuse from a case where a relative up to and including the sixth degree has a financial interest in the outcome of the case. Ms. Merchan is related to Justice Merchan in the first degree. Authentic has a newly active financial relationship with Vice President Harris’s campaign," it reads. 

“Neither the Appellate Division nor the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics could have known about this material when they issued opinions as to Justice Merchan’s continuing to preside over President Trump’s case,” Stefanik also wrote in the complaint. 

This complaint came on the same day that the sentencing in Trump's hush money trial was delayed until after the election. 

Merchan has received pushback from other Republicans for his conduct during the trial earlier this year. 

He told the jury in the Trump trial that they did not need unanimity on the alleged associated crimes that were concealed, which bumped the falsifying of business records charges from a misdemeanor to a felony, to convict the former president. This means some could agree on one crime and some another and he would treat it as a unanimous verdict.