M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
Former Trump campaign advisor David Urban and former federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman sparred over whether New York Judge Juan Merchan — presiding over former President Donald Trump's hush money trial — should be recused or not.
Goodman believes the law is on Merchan's side, while Urban maintains he should bow out.
"Let's not forget what Judge Merchan didn't do in the past that he should probably recuse himself for three donations he made," he said during an appearance on CNN's "Out Front."
Urban was piggybacking off of Donald Trump's lawyers who formally are seeking for Judge Juan Merchan to recuse himself from the former president's trial where the ex-president stands accused of falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
In a letter filed on Monday, Trump's lawyers cited Merchan's daughter, Loren, a political consultant under the employ of a digital consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, saying her job creates an "ongoing financial interest."
"Under these circumstances, Your Honor has an interest in this case that warrants recusal, there is an unacceptable risk that the Court's family relationships will influence judicial conduct, and the Court's impartiality 'might reasonably be questioned,'" defense lawyer Todd Blanche wrote, asking for permission to file a motion in support of recusal.
Urban cited three donations Merchan personally paid to Democratic-leaning causes.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett interrupted, explaining the three donations amounted to $10 apiece.
But Urban suggested it wouldn't matter if it was $1 — any "appearance" of bias would force Merchan's hand to pass the case off to another jurist.
"So he should recuse himself because it gives if it's not facially a conflict, it gives the appearance of a conflict," said Urban. "And I'm sure there's another judge in Manhattan that could try this case without presenting such a blatant appearance of a conflict, right?"
Goodman argued Merchan is in the clear and can continue seeing the case through the entirety of trial, set to begin on April 15.
"I think the motion is on a road to nowhere," he said, adding the same accusations pointing to Merchan and his daughter's supposed bias "have already been made before."
Last May, Merchan shared an opinion issued by New York's Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which determined that his "impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned."
Goodman said the ethics committee gave Merchan a "green light."
But Urban pressed Goodman about the "appearance" of partiality.
And Goodman responded: "That's not an appearance."
That left Urban in fits of laughter, adding, "Oh, come on!"
