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Former President Donald Trump has filed for a new trial in his civil fraud case, arguing that the judge who will decide it is biased against him.
In a motion filed, Trump’s lawyers said, “The evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming.”
The motion talks about Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk. Trump’s lawyers and the former president have complained many times about this person, which led to the judge ordering everyone to keep quiet, CNN reported.
Engoron has already made it clear that he doesn’t want to hear the motion. At first, he told Trump’s lawyer not to file it, but then he told him that he could file it in writing.
“In this case, there is a lot of tangible evidence of real and apparent bias. This evidence, along with a departure from normal court procedures that have never been seen before, has tainted these proceedings, and a mistrial is necessary,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the motion.
The judge has defended his conversations with his law clerk by saying that he has an “unfettered right” to talk to her about legal issues. He has also pointed out that there are different rules about political donations when the clerk is campaigning, which she was at one point.
Engoron’s gag order says that Trump and his lawyers can’t say anything about court staff or, more specifically, about what he talks to his law clerk. The gag order was broken twice, and Trump was fined both times.
“Once again, Donald Trump is trying to gloss over the truth and the facts,” a spokesperson for the office of the attorney general said. Now, Donald Trump is being held responsible for the years of fraud he committed and the crazy lies he told to get rich for himself and his family. He can try to hide his fraud all he wants, but the truth will always come out.
At the start of the seventh week of the trial, Trump’s defense team had already begun putting together its case.
Former President Donald Trump continued his criticism of New York Attorney General Letitia James after his latest court appearance in his civil fraud trial on Tuesday, ripping her for “smirking” in the courtroom.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, he began, “Racist A.G. Letitia James is smirking all day long from her seat in Court, as New York continues to set records in murder and other violent crimes, and businesses flee to other States.”
Reports noted that James was spotted smirking as Donald Trump Jr. took the witness stand in a New York City courtroom on Monday.
The trial appears to be somewhat pointless, given that Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over it, previously ruled that Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, are civilly liable for inflating the worth of assets in order to secure better loan rates.
However, he has not yet decided on a penalty; James is seeking $250 million in fines and a ban on Trump doing any business in the state.
Critics have accused her of filing the lawsuit out of political animus after she campaigned for the office on a promise to ‘get’ the former president.
NY AG Letitia James caught smirking as Don Jr. takes the stand at Trump civil trial https://t.co/rzNcfQGLMv
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 14, 2023
Following his court appearance earlier this week, Don Jr. also tore into James and predicted that New York City would “beg” businessmen like his father to return after many have bailed on the Big Apple in recent years due to rising quality of life issues.
“This is about the attorney general going after and prosecuting her political enemies,” Don Jr. declared, adding that the financial statement that was at the center of the case had nothing to do with him or his brother Eric Trump.
“My brother and I had nothing to do with it, but it doesn’t matter because it’s a witch hunt,” Trump said.
He called James “an overzealous attorney, an overzealous attorney general who would destroy all of New York business by going after transactions where there are no victims.”
Trump argued that the most important thing about this case is how it will hurt businesses in New York.
“That’s what you get from the Democratic Party in New York these days, it seems,” he told reporters. “It’s a scary precedent. I don’t know how anyone could do business in this city with that. Anyone you speak to who’s actually in banking, who’s actually in real estate understands that, but again, they don’t want to put themselves in the crosshair, so perhaps they’ll be silent. So it’s a disgrace that this is happening right now.”
“Hopefully, one day, the people of this great city will realize what’s going on,” Trump said. “They’ll realize the destructive practices here. They’ll realize just how insane that is. And they’ll be begging for guys like Donald Trump to come back to New York City to reshape the skyline as he’s done for decades.”
