I believe that Trump had no idea and wouldn't have been able to pick Merino out of a line-up of Representatives who had sold themselves to special interests. I'm guessing that it was accidental that he found out that he had nominated Merino when flipping through 60 minutes. The powers behind the throne probably thought it was pretty safe. I would be really curious to know who whispered Merino's name in Trump's ear. If you could grab that thread, you could begin to unravel the great criminal ball of yarn that is selling America to the highest bidders.