'Real' judge to meet Donald Trump in courtroom

Judge Juan Mercan has been an Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court since 2009 and is familiar with complex or high-profile cases

considering the first-ever criminal case against a former US president, is described by colleagues as strict, intelligent and balanced.

Just Juan Mercan, 60, also began his career in the same office, bringing charges against Donald Trump: District Attorney of Manhattan.

A Colombian native, Justice Merchan has been an acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court since 2009 and is no stranger to complex and high-profile cases.

He is also well versed in the legal issues of Trump and his former campaign adviser headquarters and the White House of Steve Bannon. .

It was Judge Merchan who presided last year over the Trump company's tax fraud prosecution, which resulted in a conviction and a $1.61 million fine.

Judge Merchan also sentenced longtime Trump Organization executive Allen. Weisselberg, to five months in prison after he pleaded guilty in this case.

Excerpt from a copy of Judge Huang's order Merchan Credit & Copyright: Mary Altaffer/AP

Trump himself was not indicted in the case, but the ex-president used it to claim that the judge «hates» him.

The former president stated on his Truth Social platform that the judge «treated my company viciously» in a previous case.

Lawyers who have testified before the Supreme Court judge describe him as stern but compassionate.

< p>«He's a serious lawyer, smart and even short-tempered,» Ron Kuby, a longtime defense attorney in Manhattan, told NBC News.

«He's not the kind of judge who yells at lawyers, and characterize as a serious judge. But he always controls the courtroom.”

Justice Merchan came to the US from Columbia at the age of six, raised in humble circumstances in New York's Queens area.

First in his family to attend college, he reportedly started working at the age of nine lugging bags of groceries for tips and working part-time jobs to fund his education.

His first job after being a lawyer went to school in 1994, working as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

He then worked in the New York Claims Court, which hears cases against the state and its agencies, and in Family Court in the Bronx.

Judge Merchan will preside over Trump's indictment on Tuesday and will likely oversee any subsequent trial.

He is also presiding over a criminal case involving Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty on the charges. in a money laundering, conspiracy and scam linked to a non-profit organization that was raising funds to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.