The judge who presided over former President Donald Trump's New York paperwork trial was removed from former presidential adviser Steve Bannon's upcoming criminal fraud trial.
Judge Juan Merchan, who had presided over Bannon's case since Bannon's arraignment in September 2022, was removed due to a scheduling conflict.
"The Honorable Juan M. Merchan, Acting Supreme Court Justice, who is assigned to this matter, is engaged to preside over a six-defendant trial that is scheduled to commence on September 16, 2024 and expected to last at least three months," Judge Ellen Biben wrote in an email, CNN reported Tuesday.
Biben added the reassignment will "best serve the needs of the Court."
Judge April Newbauer will replace Merchan. Bannon has scheduled appearance before her July 23.
Newbauer was in the news previously after a setting bail at $5,000, far beneath what prosecutors asked for, in a case in which a man was charged with assault of a woman and attempted burglary. The man, while out on bail months later, was charged with killing the woman, her friend, and her dog, the Washington Examiner reported.
Bannon, former adviser to Trump, on Friday asked the Supreme Court to delay his prison sentence, set to begin July 1 at a Connecticut prison, in another case. Bannon is fighting his convictions for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
In the New York case, Bannon is accused of defrauding donors in a fundraising effort branded the "We Build the Wall" campaign for the southern border.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges that include money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud related to an alleged online scheme, CNN reported.
The New York charges are based on the same 2020 accusations by federal prosecutors who alleged Bannon and three others had defrauded donors in the border. The former adviser later was pardoned by Trump.
Presidential pardons do not apply to state investigations.
Merchan presided over the trial in which Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes when a New York jury in late May found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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