GOP Rep Stefanik Files Ethics Complaint Against Judge Engoron Alleging 'Bizarre Behavior' and Anti-Trump 'Bias'
Rep. Elise Stefanik has filed an official complaint against the judge overseeing the fraud case against former President Donald Trump in New York City, saying that he was incapable of conducting a fair trial of Trump’s case.
“I just filed an official judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron for his inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance in New York’s disgraceful lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization,” she wrote on X, where she posted the text of her complaint letter.
“Americans are sick and tired of the blatant corruption by radical Leftist judges in NY,” she wrote. “All New Yorkers must speak out against the dangerous weaponized lawfare against President Trump.”
🚨🚨🚨 I just filed an official judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron for his inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance in New York’s disgraceful lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization.
Americans are sick and tired of the blatant… pic.twitter.com/5HRzSle2LV
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) November 10, 2023
Engoron is overseeing Trump’s bench trial, which means that he, and not a jury of Trump’s peers, is solely responsible for making decisions about the former president’s guilt, as well as any penalties he will be assessed.
Thursday, Engoron rejected a motion by the defense to dismiss the case entirety after Trump’s attorneys argued that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ team of lawyers had failed to make an argument that Trump had done anything worthy of punishment.
Trump, 77, faces the possibility that some of his businesses would be dissolved and the Trump Organization would be banned from ever again doing business in New York.
Engoron has said he hoped to wrap the trial up by Christmas. There was no immediate indication of what action would be taken in the meantime on Stefanik’s complaint, or when.
“All matters before the Commission on Judicial Conduct are confidential according to law, unless and until a judge is found to have committed ethical misconduct, and a decision to that effect is issued,” Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian told the New York Post.
Stefanik, the fourth-ranked Republican in the House, complained that the entire trial shouldn’t even be happening.
“At the start of the trial, Judge Engoron infamously smiled and posed for the cameras. After the defendant won an appellate ruling against Judge Engoron on the appropriate statute of limitations in this case, the judge simply ignored the ruling,” Stefanik wrote.
“Judge Engoron entered summary judgment against the defendant before the trial even began, without witnesses, other evidence, and cross-examination,” she continued.
“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.”
The New York Republican also noted that Engoron had made disparaging comments about the former president in the past.
“Last year, Judge Engoron told President Trump’s attorney that the former president is ‘just a bad guy’ who Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James ‘should go after as the chief law enforcement officer of the state,'” she wrote in her complaint.
She also cited records that showed Engoron’s staff had a history of donating to Democratic candidates.
Trump’s defense team is scheduled to begin making its case before Engoron next week.
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