One of the top Republicans in the House has filed an ethics complaint against the judge overseeing the fraud trial of former President Donald Trump, accusing the jurist of “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance.”
New York GOP. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 4 Republican in the House, sent the letter to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct on Friday.
“This judge’s bizarre behavior has no place in our judicial system,” Stefanik wrote of state Judge Arthur Engoron, whom she said was “not honoring the defendant’s rights to due process and a fair trial.”
Given that Trump is the leading GOP candidate for president, she added, “it appears the judicial system is being politicized to affect the outcome of the campaign.”
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“Simply put, Judge Engoron has displayed a clear judicial bias against the defendant throughout the case.”
She provided examples of Engoron breaking “several” rules in the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
Engoron once told Trump’s lawyer that the former president is “just a bad guy” and said New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, should “go after” Trump.
When the recent fraud trial started, the judge also ignored a ruling after Trump’s legal team won an appellate court ruling against him of the statute of limitations in the case.
Engoron also “entered summary judgment against the defendant before the trial even began, without witnesses, other evidence, and cross-examination,” Stefanik wrote. “This, despite the fact there’s disputed material evidence – and there’s no victim of the defendant’s supposed fraud.”
“Indeed, as the trial evidence has made clear, the defendant paid back the sophisticated Wall Street banks, on time, in full, with interest, as agreed. No insurance company paid a penny. And these banks and insurance companies, supposedly defrauded, continue to do business with the defendant.”
Engoron, however, “decreed before trial the defendant somehow committed fraud.”
Now, the judge is overseeing a trial without a jury or victims to determine how much Trump should pay toward James’ demand for $250 million in damages.
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“How does this not violate the defendant’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial?” said Stefanik.
In addition, Engoron “has made it crystal clear he doesn’t care what the defendant or his attorneys have to say,” the congresswoman added. She noted that the judge Engoron “illegally” gagged Trump and his team from discussing the case, telling them, “We are not here to listen to what you have to say.”
Engoron even threatened Trump’s lawyer when he filed a routine motion for a directed verdict.
“Engoron and his staff are partisan Democrat donors,” Stefanik argued, noting that the judge donated to a group called the Manhattan Democrats, even though the judicial code of ethics says judges “shall refrain” from “making a contribution to a political organization.”
When Trump’s lawyers noted that Engoron’s chief law clerk has donated roughly $6,000 to Democratic candidates and causes in the past couple of years, the judge responded by “issuing an illegal gag order against President Trump’s legal team.”
Engoron also gagged and fined Trump for “merely criticizing” his clerk, “which is core political speech protected by the First Amendment,” Stefanik said.
“If anyone in America must have the constitutional right to speak out against the judge, his staff, the witnesses, or the process, it’s a defendant going through a process he believes is politicized and weaponized against him,” she continued.
“To gag a defendant is un-American. It’s an illegal prior restraint on the defendant’s First Amendment rights, which even the progressive ACLU felt compelled to acknowledge after another Democrat judge – D.C. Obama U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan – illegally gagged President Trump.”
In fact, Stefanik added, three Democrat-appointed judges on the federal appeals court in Washington have upheld Chutkan’s illegal gag order.
Engoron further “put his judgment in serious doubt,” the lawmaker argued, when he issued a summary judgment that claimed evidence of fraud when the Trump Organization valued Mar-a-Lago between $426 million and $612 million.
The judge asserted Trump’s Palm Beach coastal estate was worth only $18 million to $27.6 million — even as the Associated Press reported that two Palm Beach-area real estate agents said the club could fetch $1 billion or more.
“Judge Engoron’s bizarre and biased behavior is making New York’s judicial system a laughingstock,” Stefanik told the ethics agency.
Engoron, she continued, has “grossly failed” to follow ethics rules that declare judges must demonstrate behavior that “promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
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“The Commission’s sanctions against Judge Engoron are necessary to bring back credibility to our great state’s legal system,” she concluded. “Judge Engoron’s disdain for President Trump and his politics are evident, and the Commission must take corrective action to restore a just process and protect our constitutional rights. Judge Engoron must recuse from this case.”
“This case is so much bigger than President Donald J. Trump,” Stefanik said in closing.
“If Judge Engoron can railroad a billionaire New York businessman, a former President of the United States, and the leading presidential candidate, just imagine what he could do to all New Yorkers. Judge Engoron’s lawlessness sends an ominous and illegal warning to New York business owners: If New York judges don’t like your politics, they will destroy your business, the livelihood of your employees, and you personally. This Commission cannot let this continue.”
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