House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has issued a subpoena to the CEO of a political consulting firm that employs the daughter of a New York judge who is expected to sentence former President Donald Trump next month.
Jordan sent a letter on Wednesday notifying Authentic Campaigns CEO Michael Nellis of the subpoena and accusing the company of failing to comply with earlier requests for information from House Republicans about its work with President Trump's political opponents.
“The Commission therefore has no option but to resort to compulsory procedures.” Jordan wrote:“Popularly elected prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have committed an unprecedented abuse of power by indicting a former president of the United States and a sitting presidential candidate.”
“Relevant to the committee's oversight is the impartiality of the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, who has refused to recuse himself from the case given his apparent conflicts of interest and bias.”
New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Marchan is scheduled to sentence Trump, 78, on September 18 in the hush-money lawsuit brought against the former president by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the alleged payment of hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump's legal team has long urged Marchand to recuse himself from the case over his own past political donations and his daughter's consulting work for prominent Democrats.
The judge's daughter, Lauren Marchand, is president and minority owner of Authentic Campaigns, whose major clients include Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead prosecutor in Trump's first impeachment trial, and Senate Majority PAC, a major Democratic fundraising group.
“One of those conflicts of interest is Judge Marchan's daughter and president of Authentic Campaigns, who works for President Trump's political opponents, and the financial benefit that Marchan and Authentic Campaigns may have derived from the prosecution and conviction of President Trump,” Jordan wrote, noting that information he learned from public reports showed that both Nellis and Lauren Marchan “were closely involved in the presidential campaigns of both President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
“During Mr. Marchan's time working for the Harris campaign, Authentic Campaigns was paid more than $7 million for its services,” the Ohio Republican said.[Nellis] “Authentic Campaigns also worked for then-candidate Harris and appears to still be doing so now. Authentic Campaigns did work for the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 and was paid just over $2 million in one month for its work, according to public records.”
The letter asks Nellis to submit to a deposition and sign an affidavit saying Authentic Campaigns has never had any contact with a New York judge.
Nellis Image shared He commented on the subpoena on Wednesday, calling it an “abuse of power” and saying he was reviewing the documents with his lawyers.
“Let me be clear: these allegations against our company are completely false and purely politically motivated,” he wrote. “This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and distract attention from the conviction of Donald Trump.”
Jordan gave Nellis until September 13 to respond to the subpoena.
New York State's Judicial Ethics Commission ruled last year that independent political activity by a judge's relatives was not a “reasonable basis” to doubt the judge's “impartiality.”
