The former top prosecutor for the Mueller investigation, said on Wednesday that he deeply admires the judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial in New York City.
“As you noted with respect to Judge Merchan, I mean-I am like now, you know, I have like a ‘man crush’ on him,” MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said. “He is such a great judge that it’s hard to see that the jurors wouldn’t have the same impression.”
Weissman continued to lay praise on Judge Juan Merchan.
“If you looked in a dictionary for judicial temperament, that’s what you would get, and just remember, he has had to put up with the defendant who committed 10 acts of contempt, he’s threatened not just him, but his family, and in spite of that, you would not know for a second that that is in any way weighing on him, because it is just such an impeccably fair trial,” he said.
The jury went into deliberations on Wednesday after Merchan gave them instructions on the case. Trump is being charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Andrea Mitchell summarized on behalf of NBC News’ Laura Jarett, who was in the courtroom, that the judge has a very calm effect where he communicates “very calmly and slowly and deliberately,” even when chiding the defense or prosecution.
“Right. I really wish for that reason that at least there was an audio,” Weissmann said.
He later added, “One of the more striking things is hearing Judge Marchan’s voice. At a time when there’s so much distrust in our legal system being fomented by Donald Trump and others, it would be so helpful to hear that, because that was the first thing that struck me.”
Weissmann served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The investigation probed the 2016 Trump campaign over alleged collusion between the campaign and Russia, but there was insufficient evidence found by Mueller linking the two.
