Rep. Elise Stefanik believes former President Donald Trump should have been granted a mistrial in the New York civil fraud case against him, The Hill reported. The New York Republican believes Trump was "wrongfully denied" his request given the judge's bias.
Stefanik amended an earlier ethics complaint to include more evidence that the judge presiding over Trump's case has a vendetta against him. "A week ago, I filed an ethics complaint against Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron for his partisan antics, bias, and railroading of President Trump," the congresswoman posted to X, formerly Twitter.
"Today, I’m supplementing my ethics complaint against Judge Engoron with examples of even more of his egregious misconduct after he just wrongly dismissed President Trump’s motion for a mistrial," she wrote Friday after the judge dismissed his request. Previously, Stefanik accused the judge of being unfit to preside over the case due to his extreme bias against Trump.
"This judge’s bizarre behavior has no place in our judicial system, where Judge Engoron is not honoring the defendant’s rights to due process and a fair trial," Stefanik wrote in her ethics complaint filed last week. Engoron denied Trump's request for a mistrial, claiming it was "utterly without merit."
Trump's attorneys had argued that Engoron was guilty of judicial misconduct and was showing his bias. The judge had made several disparaging remarks about Trump during the legal proceedings that revealed his lack of partiality.
However, Engoron claimed that his words were taken out of context. "Such argument is disingenuous and made in bad faith, as defendants omitted what I said immediately after that sentence," the judge claimed of one example the attorneys cited.
Despite the ongoing legal woes for Trump, he did have one small victory as an appeals court lifted the gag order on the former president. Stefanik took credit for this development.
"I am pleased to see that after my ethics complaint to the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct against Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron, an appellate court has lifted the unconstitutional gag order against President Trump," a statement from the congresswoman said following the ruling. Arguably, the gag order was one of the most controversial aspects of the case against him.
After Trump made disparaging remarks about a law clerk on social media, Engoron barred Trump from making any comments about what was happening in the courtroom, the Associated Press reported. The judge fined Trump $15,000 twice for supposed infractions.
Then, on Nov. 3, he placed the order on Trump's lawyers after they complained about the same law clerk, Allison Greenfield, passing notes to the judge. Trump's lawyer said it was akin to "fighting two adversaries" in the courtroom.
Engoron shrugged it off, stating he had "an absolutely unfettered right" to seek her legal advice in the trial. Both the judge and his clerk are Democrats, and Trump is being silenced at a time when he is the favorite to become the GOP presidential nominee.
The trial has had the stench of Democrat-run political theater since its inception. The $250 million lawsuit that threatens Trump's future doing business in New York was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a very Democrat who has made no bones about her hatred for Trump.
Trump attorney Alina Habba pointed out that James "campaigned on" the promise to go after Trump, Fox News reported. "That's how she got the attorney general role. She campaigned on Trump, so she had to follow through, and she should really dismiss this case; it's making her look bad, frankly, and the city needs her attention elsewhere.
The case against Trump hinges on the flimsy premise that he was bilking lenders by inflating his assets. This claim is absurd and unproven, but it seems a crooked judge and attorney general are attempting to make hay out of it anyway -- and that's shameful.
