Jim Jordan targets judge's daughter in Trump hush money case

As Donald Trump's latest criminal trial approached, the former president attacked a number of figures from across the justice system, including likely witnesses in his hush money case for a porn star. This prompted Judge Juan Merchan, who was overseeing the proceedings, to impose a news gag order on the Republican to protect the integrity of the trial.

Trump, who has a penchant for attacking the families of his perceived enemies, responded by attacking the judge's daughter – publicly and repeatedly.

The GOP candidate's allies, including House Republican Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and Donald Trump Jr., soon followed the same path. Four months later, the party is still at it. The Hill reported:

Currently, the committee's far-right, conspiracy-theorist chairman, Jim Jordan, is demanding both a witness statement and a sworn statement from the company's CEO that Authentic Campaigns did not communicate with Merchan.

Of course, anyone who knows the Ohio Republican knows how irresponsible he is—I argued myself last fall that Jordan is by far the worst member of Congress—but even by his standards, these recent antics are hard to justify.

The underlying conspiracy theory is that the judge in the Trump case may have been somehow in cahoots with his daughter and her partisan campaign efforts. This notion is difficult to take seriously. As my MSNBC colleague Lisa Rubin explained, “The House Judiciary Committee was clearly told that the digital strategy firm Judge Merchan's daughter is working with has not worked for the Biden or Harris campaigns this election, and that she herself does not work with any relevant political clients. They were also told about the death threats against her and the company's founder. Yet today they subpoenaed the firm as if it was guilty of wrongdoing, not the committee or Trump himself.”

In addition, Mike Nellis, founder of Authentic Campaigns, wrote to Jordan stating: “Authentic had no role, involvement or influence in these legal proceedings,” Nellis wrote, claiming his company has not had any contracts with Biden for President, Harris for President or the Democratic National Committee since January 1, 2023.

A New Republic report continued: “Nellis called Trump's claims that Loren Merchan made tens of millions from Trump's trial 'unequivocally false.' He also accused the committee of 'wasting valuable time and taxpayer money to perpetuate a false right-wing conspiracy theory,' and called it a 'disgraceful abuse of power.'”

There is no reason to believe that this Republican crusade will end anytime soon, but it certainly should.