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Judge Arthur Engoron has again refused to recuse himself from President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, according to a new report.
The judge who presided over Trump’s past trial spoke out against allegations against him in an eight-page ruling.
“As no grounds for mandatory recusal exist here, it is up to me and my conscience to determine whether this 90-second, unsolicited diatribe about a law with which I was fully familiar and in which I was fully immersed, by a non-party and non-expert who conveyed no facts, in any way affected my adjudication of a dispute over which I had presided for three and a half years, during which time I had already issued several dispositive decisions,” Engoron stated, referring to an NBC New York interview.
The NBC interview featured attorney Leitman Bailey claiming he spoke with Engoron three weeks before Trump’s judgment to offer unsolicited advice. Trump’s legal team has pushed for the judge to be removed over the issue.
Engoron “may have engaged in actions fundamentally incompatible with the responsibilities attendant to donning the black robe and sitting in judgment,” according to Trump’s legal representatives.
The judge ruled in February that Trump and his Trump Organization altered Trump’s net worth for additional benefits. The ruling ordered $464 million to be paid in the judgment, including additional fees in interest.
Trump’s legal team has appealed the ruling but posted a $175 million bond in April to block the seizure of his assets during his appeal.
“Such an outrageous miscarriage of justice is profoundly un-American, and a complete reversal is the only means available to restore public confidence in the integrity of the New York judicial system,” Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said in a statement. He called the judgment as “draconian, unlawful, and unconstitutional.”
The decision stands in addition to an $80 million defamation lawsuit ruling against Trump from E. Jean Carroll and a guilty verdict on 34 counts related to falsifying business records.
Trump has vowed to continue his appeal efforts in both cases. He was also involved in a legal battle regarding an FBI raid that allegedly found classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home.
The Florida case was recently dismissed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of presidential immunity.