Trump, 77, attacks DAUGHTER of judge in the Stormy Daniels trial: Ex-president says Juan Merchan ‘hates me’ and claims he treated ‘elderly’ Allen Weisselberg, 76, ‘viciously’

Donald Trump once again criticized the man overseeing the Stormy Daniels trial a day after Judge Juan Merchan set an April trial date, despite pressure from Trump’s lawyers to have the case dismissed.

Trump was inside a Manhattan courtroom with Merchan on Monday as lawyers argued over the start of his first criminal trial, now scheduled for April 15. On Tuesday, he launched multiple online attacks on judges and prosecutors, even as he called Merchan a “distinguished-looking man.” .’

He took aim at Merchan’s daughter and lamented the treatment of former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty this month to lying under oath without agreeing to cooperate. It comes after his repeated attacks at her separate fraud trial in New York led Judge Arthur Engoron to impose a “gag” order prohibiting her from attacking his chief clerk.

“Judge Juan Merchán, a very distinguished-looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump wrote.

‘In other words, he hates me! “His daughter is a top executive at a super-liberal Democratic firm who works for Adam “Shifty” Schiff, the Democratic National Committee, the Senate Majority PAC, and even corrupt Joe Biden,” Trump wrote.

Last year, Trump’s lawyers tried to remove Merchan from the case by citing her daughter’s work for Authentic Campaigns, a digital advocacy firm, but were denied.

Trump then went after Merchan for her role in overseeing the Weisselberg case. (He also oversaw former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.)

Merchan showed some of his tough side when Weisselberg was sentenced, telling him that if he hadn’t already promised a five-month sentence, he would have opted for something “much longer.”

Trump, 77, complained about the case without directly saying he was referring to the veteran Trump executive first brought in by his father, Fred Trump, calling Weisselberg, 76, “elderly and in poor health.”

‘He was recently a judge in an unrelated trial of a long-term employee who was elderly and not in good health. This judge treated him brutally, telling him that either you cooperate or I will imprison you for 15 years. He pleaded guilty and went to jail for very minor, very unusual crimes, served 4 months in Rikers and now they are after him again, this time for allegedly lying (it doesn’t seem like a lie to me!), and they threatened him. He is sentenced again to 15 years if he does not say something bad about “TRUMP”. He is devastated and scared! These scoundrels and thugs who destroy the country have no case against me. WITCH HUNT!’

Trump was in Merchan’s courtroom as his team sought to dismiss or delay the trial on charges of falsifying business records related to the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump. They said they needed more time after prosecutors released more than 100,000 pages of evidence.

But Merchan rejected the statement after a tense hearing in which he argued with Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche.

Prosecutors “went so far from what they were required to do that it really is strange that we are here taking this time,” the judge said.

Merchan last year considered Trump’s motion to recuse himself from the case, addressing arguments about his daughter, including the claim that she “will benefit financially” from the court’s decisions.

‘Defendant has not demonstrated that there are concrete, or even realistic, reasons why recusal would be appropriate, much less required on these grounds. “The speculative and hypothetical scenarios offered by the defendant fall far below the legal standard,” Merchan wrote.