How many data points must you identify before you can identify a pattern?
This is a question I've pondered about in the case of New York's Acting Judge Juan Merchan. He is the judge presiding over the bookkeeping and non-disclosure agreement case of Donald Trump. What happens when you hide evidence of a pattern? Ironically—and illegally—Judge Merchan and the people at the oxymoronically-named Ethics Commission for the New York State Unified Court System have been hiding the judge's records and disclosures since 2018. America First Legal is suing both Merchan and ethics overseers for illegally hiding the judge's disclosures for the past seven years.
Merchan is the darling of the lawfare left, of which the ethics commission is undoubtedly a part or they would have slapped him down by now. The judge has made a travesty out of the bookkeeping and records case against Donald Trump in Manhattan. Giving a multiple-choice, choose-your-own-crime menu to a jury, denying the testimony of the country's best expert on campaign finance—the key issue—while allowing the beside-the-point Stormy Daniels testimony, are not displays of good judgment. Indeed, quite the opposite is true.
But back to our consideration of data points and patterns. There are no legal standards for what comprises a trend or pattern, but, as Justice Potter Stewart infamously said of obscenity, "I know it when I see it."
In business, such as in the case of Six Sigma standards, establishing a pattern or trend requires seven data points. For other business uses it's five. For financial gurus, there are only two(!). Generally, in nature, it's three. At least that's what turned up on the AI generator which passes for results on the major search engine that starts with a G.
So, let's recap: the smallest number is two. Seven is preferred.
Let us consider Judge Merchan's patterns.
That's 13. Even if you toss the first four because freedom of association is a thing in this country (at the moment) and the fact he can't be responsible for what his kid did before the case, that still leaves nine. And let's not forget, for brevity's sake, I haven't even listed all of the issues.
But what else don't we know?
The America First Legal Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Merchan and the Ethics Commission for the New York State Unified Court System for access to Merchan's financial disclosures since 2018.
The legal foundation, founded by former Trump Administration insider Stephen Miller, has sought these disclosures since June and filed the lawsuit on Friday.
Under New York Law, judges are required to file annual financial disclosures which are required to be made available for inspection upon request. AFL has filed such a request for Acting Judge Merchan’s disclosures for reporting years 2018 through 2024.
Trump's sentencing in this contrived case has been put off until after the election.
It sure would be nice to find out what they're hiding before the former or future President of the United States of America had to report to Rikers Island.