Trump fixating on judge's small donation to distract from incoming wave of evidence: analyst

Former President Donald Trump has been attacking Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, who is overseeing his trial for alleged bookkeeping fraud over the $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels — focusing in particular on small donations he made to Democratic politicians and groups years ago.

But all of this is a trivial sideshow, argued CNN correspondent Audie Cornish on "The Lead" Thursday, meant to distract from the upcoming legal drama Trump is about to face.

"There's fresh scrutiny on the judge in the New York City criminal case against Donald Trump," said anchor Jake Tapper. "He gave $35 in contributions to Democrats over the years, including $15 to the Biden campaign, $10 to an organization called Stop Republicans in 2020. These are not big contributions, but they're contributions, and there are some legal experts who are saying it's not worth it to have this be the judge because it's an obvious ground for appeal. What do you think?"

"Well to be clear, he already has overseen a Trump case, right?" said Cornish, referencing the Trump Organization fraud case. "And so it's not like he's a kind of random judge who has a problem ... but, you know, I don't think it's — we don't want to fall into the trap of basically trying to undermine the participants in the case, because that is the defense's role, right, and that's what Trump wants. So he's going to point out things about the judge, is going to point out things about D.A. Bragg, pointing out people, members of people's families."

The primary objective of this, said Cornish, "is to distract from real evidence that may be coming out in the next couple of days."

"Records, possibly audio," Cornish continued. "There's a lot that is going to happen. Never mind the E. Jean Carroll case. Which is a sort of defamation-slash-possible sexual harassment case that could come to fruition in May. So while I want to talk about the $35, it just feels like there's way more going on, and stuff like that sort of muddies the water."

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Audie Cornish on Trump's attacks on Judge Juan Manuel Merchan www.youtube.com