The House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to Authentic Campaigns, the company that employs the daughter of New York judge Juan Merchan. This development comes amid an ongoing dispute between the committee's Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government and the company, which previously denied lawmakers' requests for communications between the company and Judge Merchan.

Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has now called on CEO Mike Nellis to provide a deposition and sign an affidavit affirming that Authentic Campaigns had no communication with Judge Merchan. Despite Nellis dismissing the notion of any involvement between the company and an employee's parent, Jordan has demanded a thorough search of the company's records for any relevant communications regarding President Trump's hush money trial.

In response, Nellis criticized Jordan's subpoena, viewing it as an intimidation tactic. Taking to the social platform X, Nellis emphasized that the allegations linking Authentic Campaigns to Trump's fraud trial were false and politically motivated. He expressed his refusal to be bullied, asserting that the company will not allow House Republicans or MAGA extremists to spread lies about their work.

Judge Merchan's daughter, Loren Merchan, has frequently faced backlash from Trump due to her involvement in campaigns for prominent Democrats such as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. Efforts have been made to force Judge Merchan to recuse himself from Trump's New York case based on his daughter's work, but the judge has rejected multiple recusal requests.

Trump's legal team even suggested that Loren Merchan's work for Harris constituted a new reason for her father's recusal, but the judge maintains that his daughter's work presents no conflict. He consulted the state's judicial ethics advisory committee to support his decision.

While the former president is prohibited from publicly commenting about Judge Merchan's family members or the prosecutors in the New York case, Judge Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) are still fair game. Jordan has been conducting various inquiries targeting those involved in prosecuting Trump or connected to them, including investigations into Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who has filed election interference-related charges against Trump in Georgia.

In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to a hush money payment made by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to a porn actor to keep her silent about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump denies the affair and any wrongdoing in relation to the payment. His sentencing is scheduled for September 18, pending a ruling by Judge Merchan on the impact of the Supreme Court's decision regarding presidential immunity.