(NEW YORK) — The New York judge who oversaw former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial on Thursday denied an attempt to kick him off the case.
Trump had tried to get Judge Arthur Engoron kicked off the case, alleging violations of the rules governing how judges are supposed to behave.
Trump’s attorneys said Engoron “may have engaged in actions fundamentally incompatible with the responsibilities attendant to donning the black robe and sitting in judgment.”
The defense alleged Engoron spoke to a New York real estate attorney about the substance of Trump’s case in violation of New York’s Code of Judicial Conduct. The filing cited a conversation between Engoron and Adam Leitman Bailey, who alleged he spoke with Engoron three weeks before he issued his final order in the case that required Trump to pay nearly half a billion dollars.
“I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse] and I told my client, ‘I need to go.’ And I walked over and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why. … I really want him to get it right,” Bailey told NBC New York, which first reported the story.
Engoron said Thursday he has overseen the case for 3 1/2 years and he said he did not need, much less welcome, a “tirade” from Bailey, who he derided as a “landlord-tenant lawyer ranting.”
Bailey could not immediately be reached for comment. There was no immediate comment from the court.
Earlier this week, Trump and his co-defendants asked New York’s Appellate Division to overturn February’s ruling from Engoron that found the former president fraudulently inflated his net worth to secure better business deals.
“It violates centuries of New York case law holding that NYAG cannot sue to vindicate alleged violations that are purely private in nature — and, in this case, do not exist at all,” defense lawyers wrote in a 95-page filing.
Engoron fired back at defense lawyers’ claims.
“I am supremely confident in my ability to continue to serve, as I always have, impartially,” Engoron wrote Thursday.
Engoron in February ordered Trump to pay $464 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest after he found the former president and his adult sons liable for using “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate his net worth in order to get more favorable loan terms. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has appealed the decision in the case.
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