Here’s the number one reason Trump should win on appeal: 
 
Juan Merchan, he’s the New York Manhattan trial judge who presided over the hush money trial of former president Donald Trump. The trial that returned 34 felony convictions. Merchan ought never to have accepted the case in the first place. 
 
Why: Because Merchan had made contributions to President Biden’s reelection campaign and to two anti-Republican and anti-Trump political action committees—something New York law absolutely prohibits.
 
They were small, a total of thirty-five dollars, and they were illegal. One dollar, a million dollars—illegal. 

Merchan was free to remove himself—and he should have. 
 
I’ll cite just one section from New York’s rules governing judicial conduct:
 
Section 100.5(A)(1): “Neither a sitting judge nor a candidate for public office to judicial office shall directly or indirectly engage in any political activity…”
 
It goes on to absolutely prohibit political contributions.

Merchan got a letter of admonition, a caution from the State Bar, but he asked an advisory committee whether or not he could take the case in an appeals court on an interlocutory appeal before the court said yeah, go ahead.

Well, Merchan’s refusal to recuse will be studied by appeals court now in light of his many rulings against Trump in the course of the trial.
 
Is there any doubt, outside feverish anti-Trump circles, that Merchan was compromised by his donations? 
 
Merchan is a partisan, and a robe doesn’t disguise the team jersey with the great big “D” he is wearing underneath it.