Former President Donald Trump said New York Judge Arthur Engoron, the presiding judge over New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against the former president, is a “democrat operative” and called on him to be “disbarred.”
Monday marked the first day of James’ civil fraud trial against Trump, a case expected to last three months.
Trump appeared in court for the first day of his trial and blasted Judge Engoron, James, and the entire process at various points throughout the day, including before the trial started, during the lunch break, and at the end of the day’s proceedings.
In this Tuesday, June 11, 2019, file photo, New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Trump argued Engoron should be “disbarred” for his actions in this case.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office,” Trump said. “This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace.”
Trump called Engoron a “Democrat judge from the clubhouses” in his remarks to the media.
“This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. And you have a rogue judge who ruled that properties are worth a tiny fraction, one one-hundredth, a tiny fraction of what they actually are,” Trump told reporters.
Trump added:
And we’re wasting our time on this trial with the Democrat judge from the clubhouses. It’s a disgrace. They ought to look for the murders of the killers that are all over New York killing people. And the violent crime that’s being committed in our city and our state is disgraceful. And we’re going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It’s ridiculous. He’s a Democrat judge, he’s an operative, and it’s ridiculous. But other than that, things went very well.
Last week, Judge Engoron issued a rare summary judgment that concluded that James proved her case before Trump’s attorneys could mount their own defense.
As Breitbart News reported:
He went further, sanctioning Trump’s attorneys and fining them $7500 each for filing repeated motions to dismiss that Judge Engoron decided were frivolous, disregarding the expert opinion of a former judge, filed with the court.
[Former Trump Attorney Michael] Cohen alleged that Trump inflated the values of his real estate properties — which are estimates, in any case — in obtaining real estate loans from banks against those properties.
The judge agreed, ignoring the fact that the banks almost certainly did their own due diligence investigations before making those loans, and disregarding the fact that no bank lost money on the loans. It did not matter that there was no injured party; exaggeration itself was enough
…
The judge relied on an estimate of the Palm Beach County assessor, without considering the assessments of neighboring properties in comparison, and while disregarding expert opinion that put the value of Mar-a-Lago at over $1 billion. (Trump’s own estimate of the estate’s market value is up to $612 million.)
Trump is expected to be present on Tuesday for the second day of the trial, Fox News reported.
However, Trump did praise Engoron at the end of the day over the judge’s comments regarding the applicable statute of limitations in this case.
Judge Arthur Engoron poses for a picture in his courtroom in New York, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Toward the end of day one, Engoron questioned if hearing lengthy witness testimony about 2011 financial documents was a “waste of time,” given the statute of limitations 2014 expiration, CNN reported.
“I trust that you can relate the 2011 documents to something that happened later,” Engoron said to the attorney general’s legal team. “Or this has all been a waste of time.
Trump lauded Engoron’s comments as “outstanding.”
“The last five minutes was outstanding because the judge essentially conceded that the statute of limitations, that we won at the court of appeals, is in effect,” Trump said. “Therefore about 80% of the case is over.”
“The way I interpret that, and the way the room seems to interpret that is that the statute of limitations is a very real thing in this country. And about 80% of this case would be over,” the former president added.
Trump’s lawyers said Engoron’s comments appeared to mean he was “agreeing that all the transactions enclosed prior to 2014 are now out of the case” in a statement after the first day of trial.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.