I believe Andrew McCarthy predicted they would do this when he appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s YT show yesterday.
Merchan is caught between a rock and a hard place. There’s a good chance a guilty verdict will be overturned on appeal and he’s looking more and more the fool in the legal community.
On the other hand he’s a Trump hater and doesn’t want to lose his liberal buddies and his liberal family.
He should have recused from the start.