Chicago US Attorney's Office Spent a Year Probing Firm Once Co-Owned by Hush-Money Judge's Daughter

Federal prosecutors in Chicago spent roughly the past year investigating Authentic Campaigns Inc., a Democratic fundraising firm once co-owned by Loren Merchan, daughter of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, according to court filings and people familiar with the inquiry cited by the New York Times.

Judge Merchan presided over Donald Trump's hush-money trial, which ended in May 2024 with a jury convicting Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, according to ABC News. Prosecutors in that case alleged Trump orchestrated payments, including $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, to bury stories that threatened his 2016 campaign.

Last August, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois subpoenaed Authentic Campaigns for a broad range of internal communications with its Democratic clients, the Times reported. Those clients reportedly include Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the Democratic National Committee, according to a grand jury subpoena reviewed by the Times.

Loren Merchan served as a vice president at the firm until late 2024 and was named in the investigation. Trump and his allies have repeatedly accused Judge Merchan of bias and claimed, without presenting evidence, that his daughter profited financially from the case against Trump.

What Prosecutors Actually Narrowed the Request To

Authentic Campaigns fought the subpoena. Its legal team included Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. After negotiations, prosecutors scaled back their demands, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Times anonymously because the investigation is ongoing.

The narrowed focus was a single $468 payment from Harris's 2024 presidential campaign and emails exchanged between Loren Merchan and her father, the judge.

This represents a significant reduction in scope from a year-long federal inquiry that started with a subpoena broad enough to cover four sitting or former top Democratic officials and the DNC.

No Charges, No New Subpoenas

Prosecutors have not issued follow-up subpoenas to Loren Merchan, Authentic Campaigns founder Michael Nellis, or anyone else connected to the firm, according to sources who spoke to the Times. That absence of continued activity suggests, per those sources, that authorities are not actively building toward criminal charges right now.

The current status of the investigation is unclear. Nobody involved, not the Justice Department, not Judge Merchan, not Loren Merchan, would comment to the Times.

The Firm's Response

Nellis did not stay quiet. He told the Times the investigation amounts to political retaliation.

"The Trump administration's targeting of my company is an outrageous abuse of power," Nellis said, according to Raw Story's report on the Times story. "It is a ridiculous fishing expedition based on conspiracy theories that are completely divorced from reality."

Nellis said the government is really after "sensitive political communications of my clients who are among Trump's most prominent political adversaries," according to the same reporting.

A federal subpoena that swept up a sitting House Democratic leader, a governor, a former president, a former vice president, and the DNC's fundraising vendor, launched by a Justice Department under a president who has spent two years publicly attacking the judge's family by name, presents concerns about the investigation's intent. If prosecutors wanted access to Democratic campaign communications, this structure would provide a plausible vehicle.

The Other Side of It

No indictment has been returned. No charges have been filed against Loren Merchan, Nellis, or Authentic Campaigns. The Times' own sourcing indicates the pullback to a $468 line item and father-daughter emails, rather than continued pressure on the DNC or the campaigns themselves, suggests the investigation has not expanded into an active dragnet targeting Democratic operations broadly.

U.S. attorneys have wide subpoena power in grand jury investigations, and that power is rarely made public unless it leaks, which makes it hard for outside observers to judge whether this inquiry is following ordinary financial-crimes logic or serving a political purpose. The system isn't built for the public to know the difference in real time.

Trump's claims that Judge Merchan was biased against him have never been backed by evidence in any of these reports. Nor has any report shown that Loren Merchan personally profited from her father's handling of the hush-money case.

The Justice Department has not announced this investigation publicly and has not commented for the record, according to the Times, Raw Story, and Alternet's reporting. Whether it produces charges, closes quietly, or resurfaces closer to the 2026 midterms is, at this point, entirely unresolved.