'Bad stuff happens': Judge Merchan faces hanging threats linked to Trump misinformation

ALSO READ: 'Big loser was John Fetterman': Dem colleague warns writing's on wall for senator

'Bad stuff happens': Judge Merchan faces hanging threats linked to Trump misinformation
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan in 2011.. - Marc A. Hermann/New York Daily News/TNS

New York Justice Juan Merchan reportedly received death threats after misinformation about the hush money trial was spread by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

NBC News reported multiple conservative news organizations had repeated a false suggestion that the jury verdict did not have to be unanimous in Trump's case.

One Fox News analyst sent a viral message on social media, saying the judge "told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict" Trump.

"That's not true," NBC's Ryan J. Reilly wrote. "[J]urors have to agree unanimously that Trump committed a crime by engaging in a criminal conspiracy to falsify records with the intent to commit one or more other crimes in order to convict him."

However, jurors were given three options as to what the underlying crime could be.

ALSO READ: Five questions you must ask yourself before voting in November

NBC noted that one Gab user responded to the false claims by writing," [It's] time to find out where that judge lives and protest as the left calls it."

"I hear bad stuff happens to judges in their driveways," another user wrote.

A Telegram user suggested a "military tribunal" for the judge.

"[A]nd on the official Telegram channel of Steve Bannon's WarRoom, a user said Merchan 'and all involved' should be hanged," Reilly reported. Another pro-Trump forum also called for Merchan's hanging.

"Merchan wants to be the merchant of death to sell more rope, except he could easily be selling the rope that hangs him," the user said.

For customer support contact support@rawstory.com. Report typos and corrections to corrections@rawstory.com.

James Carville crowns GOP’s only ‘winner’ after Trump’s heir bungles midterm push

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville singled out the one Republican he believes walked away from the GOP's election night drubbing stronger than before.

Speaking in a Wednesday episode of "Politics War Room," Carville named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the GOP's surprise winner after Republicans narrowly held Florida while Texas flipped from red to blue.

"The Republican winner last night was Ron DeSantis," Carville said.

The longtime Democratic operative made clear he is no fan of the Florida governor, but he argued that DeSantis can now tell fellow Republicans to look at his home state if they want to win. Carville stressed that "everybody had dismissed him" before the midterms and predicted the GOP's image would sink after its losses, while DeSantis can point to having backed many of Trump's policies without ever becoming part of his orbit.

"Whatever chance he had last night is doubled in the last 24 hours," Carville added.

Co-host Mark McKinnon, a veteran political strategist, agreed that "the greatest beneficiary of this election may be Ron DeSantis." McKinnon pointed out that DeSantis had already gone on the attack against former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, blaming her for much of the outcome over early ICE policies.

The picture looked far bleaker for Vice President JD Vance. McKinnon declared that Vance "is walking wounded" and predicted a reckoning in MAGA that would leave the movement splintered heading into 2028.

Aidan Kohn-Murphy, founder of the youth advocacy group Gen Z for Change, was even harsher. He called Vance "a very silly man" whose "surrogates and his campaign appearances have been pretty disastrous."

"I think he comes out of this looking pretty rough," Kohn-Murphy said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who mainly campaigned in Florida, kept "his hands clean a little bit."

Kohn-Murphy remained skeptical of DeSantis' national appeal, though, and called Democrats coming within a point and a half in Florida's governor's race and two points in the Senate race "a pretty devastating result."

Carville was unmoved, summing up his view of politics bluntly.

"The most important thing in politics is winning," he declared.

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING! ALL ADS REMOVED!

Melania Trump’s gripes turned Trump on Stephen Miller as warnings fell on deaf ears: WSJ

First lady Melania Trump's private complaints got the president to sour on one of his top aides, a rare warning that actually landed.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that after Melania Trump objected when acquaintances of hers were deported, President Donald Trump began telling aides that Stephen Miller, the driving force behind his immigration crackdown, had pushed too far.

Trump went back and forth on immigration throughout the year, according to the report, at times telling aides he wanted a harsher crackdown. Republicans in Texas and Florida privately raised concerns with the White House, and on Election Day, counties with overwhelmingly Hispanic populations broke heavily for Democrats.

Most other red flags didn't get through, The Journal reported. When aides brought him polling in the spring and summer showing voters were worried about his handling of affordability, Trump dismissed the numbers as fake, a senior administration official told The Journal. He pointed out in one meeting that he hadn't commissioned any polls in 2016 and won anyway.

At times, Trump told aides he didn't care about the midterms at all, according to the official, who said the president had wearied of domestic politics and cared more about foreign affairs and how history would remember him.

Allies including Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity quietly pressed him to focus on costs, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune repeatedly tried to raise affordability during calls Trump made about scrapping the filibuster. When Trump wanted to veto a popular bipartisan housing bill, he told one adviser nobody cared about it. Aides eventually talked him into letting it become law without his signature.

Trump also pushed aside stronger Senate candidates in four states in favor of loyalists, The Journal reported, and Democrats won all four races.

"It really didn't have to be this way," said Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost South Carolina's Republican Senate primary after Trump intervened.

A White House official told The Journal that Trump wasn't indecisive and always sought out feedback, while advisers credited him with holding 30 rallies for candidates.

'Awful' MAGA candidate ridiculed for losing 'in the most entertaining way imaginable'

A MAGA congressional candidate became a laughingstock Wednesday after his Election Day gotcha about his rival’s campaign ended in a decisive loss.

Brandon Herrera, the Republican gun YouTuber who ran for Texas' 23rd Congressional District, teased on Election Day that "one of the people we had inside the @katy4congress campaign might be someone you'd recognize," attaching a selfie of Democrat Katy Padilla Stout beside a grinning man in glasses. Fellow gun YouTuber King Trout then appeared to claim the role, quote-tweeting Herrera with "I've been quiet this cycle for a reason. I've been busy, teehee."

The stunt did nothing to save Herrera. Padilla Stout flipped the seat, becoming the first Democrat to hold it in more than a decade, the Texas Tribune reported. She led Herrera roughly 52% to 44% with nearly every county reporting, per Decision Desk HQ. Herrera landed the GOP nomination after incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales dropped out of the primary runoff.

Aaron Fritschner, a senior aide to Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), called the episode "one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a House campaign."

"Brandon Herrera is an awful person but boy oh boy did he and his terrible friend manage to lose in the most entertaining way imaginable," he added.

Stephen Gutowski, a gun policy reporter who founded The Reload, marveled that Herrera "had a pal volunteer to help his opponent, triumphantly revealed the scheme on election day, and then lost the race with a 23-point shift towards Democrats from 2024."

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before," Gutowski said.

The anti-MAGA research account PatriotTakes, which monitors right-wing extremism, summed up the misfire bluntly, noting that Herrera "had an infiltrator in his opponent's campaign and still lost."

Sam Weinberg, executive director of Path to Progress, went a step further, warning that "Herrera is possibly admitting to multiple state and federal crimes here." Weinberg did not specify which laws he believed the scheme might have broken.

Copyright © 2026 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | Manage Preferences | Debug Logs RS+
For corrections contact corrections@rawstory.com , for support contact support@rawstory.com .

{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}