Trump will seinen Richter ins Gefängnis werfen. Die Wahrheit ist: Er ist ein Held

[https://web.archive.org/web/20240608054324/https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-trumps-devil-judge-juan-merchan-should-really-be-known-for?ref=home?ref=home](https://web.archive.org/web/20240608054324/https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-trumps-devil-judge-juan-merchan-should-really-be-known-for?ref=home?ref=home)

>The courtroom was now largely empty, but the 62-year-old jurist on the bench was the same. New York County Supreme Court [Judge Juan Merchan](https://web.archive.org/web/20240608054324/https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-trial-judge-seals-the-courtroom-to-unleash-on-witness-bob-costello) began by addressing this defendant just as he had the defendant in the hush-money case.

>“Good morning,” Merchan said, substituting “Mr. Trump” with “Ms.” and a name The Daily Beast is withholding because she is a mental health patient. The tone was exactly the same.

>“Good morning, your honor,” the defendant said.

>“How are you doing?” Merchan asked.

>“I’m feeling very well,” the defendant said. “Thank you. And you?”

>“I’m good, I’m good,” Merchan replied. “Thank you.”

>“Good to hear,” the defendant said.

>The courtroom began to acquire an added brightness of another kind. The judge whom Trump had called a “devil” and “crooked” and “a tyrant” is in fact as close as New York City has to a hero on the bench, regularly bringing the light of fairness and empathy to Part 59M.

>Merchan has been the presiding judge in Manhattan Mental Health Court since its inception 13 years ago. It convenes every Wednesday to provide what The New York State Office of Court Administration describes as “a comprehensive system of oversight and treatment to eligible defendants with mental illness.” He is not some reflexively permissive pushover; if you fail to live up to your commitments, you are liable to do more time than if you had never entered the program. He is assisted by Amber Petitt-Cifarelli, a resource coordinator who sits to his right. She says that many of the successful defendants share a motivation…