Throughout closing arguments at Donald J. Trump’s civil fraud trial, Arthur F. Engoron, the choose who has overseen the case for greater than three years, made what might need been an uncommon remark for another jurist.
Justice Engoron, a lean 74-year-old with an unruly mop of white hair, acknowledged that his management of the courtroom had not been excellent.
He had allowed repetitive objections from Mr. Trump’s legal professionals, regardless of protests by the New York lawyer common’s workplace, which introduced the case. He had usually ignored Mr. Trump’s violations of courtroom decorum. At one level, the choose recalled, he had even let a witness reply his cell phone whereas on the stand.
Regardless of all that, he warned the legal professionals, “I don’t need you to assume I’m a pushover.”
Nobody is more likely to assume so now. Justice Engoron on Friday dominated in opposition to the previous president, discovering that he had orchestrated a conspiracy to inflate his internet value, penalizing him $355 million and instituting a three-year ban from working his household enterprise. Regardless of his absurdist humor and good cheer, the choose confirmed himself in the long run to be a really critical man.
It was the end result of what was absolutely one of many extra intense durations of Justice Engoron’s skilled life. Through the trial, he contended with repeated nameless antisemitic assaults on his household and on his legislation clerk, Allison Greenfield, and with threats to his personal life. Final month, he was roused early one morning to search out {that a} bomb squad had been dispatched to his Lengthy Island dwelling to reply to a report that turned out to be a hoax.
However regardless of the assaults, and his personal clear want for harmonious proceedings, Justice Engoron constantly got here down exhausting on the previous president. On Friday, he continued his streak of lacerating rulings.
Justice Engoron was an unlikely antagonist for the previous president, who has repeatedly denounced him as a Democratic stooge. He’s a former cabdriver and music teacher who served within the New York judiciary for greater than 15 years earlier than presiding over Mr. Trump’s bench trial. He served as each choose and jury, which the statute underneath which the lawsuit was introduced requires.
He first started overseeing the case in 2020, and over the months, a dualistic strategy emerged: He was solicitous within the courtroom, and scathing in written choices.
In February 2022, for instance, he supervised an explosive listening to at which he and Ms. Greenfield centered on holding the peace. They listened with equanimity as legal professionals for Mr. Trump protested that their consumer shouldn’t be topic to questioning underneath oath.
Then, in his written ruling, Justice Engoron didn’t maintain again, asserting that the lawyer common, Letitia James, had discovered “copious proof of doable monetary fraud” — proof that he wrote justified the questioning. A few months later, he held Mr. Trump in contempt of court docket for failing to completely reply to a subpoena, finally penalizing him $110,000.
Justice Engoron moved straight into the highlight final September, the week earlier than the civil fraud trial began. In a pretrial ruling, he delivered a devastating blow to Mr. Trump, discovering that his annual monetary statements — which contained representations of his internet value — have been crammed with fraud.
On the morning of opening arguments, Mr. Trump entered the courtroom prepared for a battle, telling the reporters within the hallway that he’d quickly be on trial in entrance of a “rogue” choose. Minutes later, Justice Engoron took the bench and, with Mr. Trump seated earlier than him, appeared wholly unfazed: Considered one of his first feedback was a joke in regards to the pronunciation of his personal title.
“I’m Choose Arthur Engoron, and that’s the right pronunciation of my surname,” he stated. “En-GOR-on, not EN-go-ron or, even worse, En-GU-ron.”
He regarded amused as photographers captured Mr. Trump scowling on the protection desk, and he posed after they turned their lenses on him. Hours later, movies of Justice Engoron smiling on the cameras set to the theme music of the sitcom “Full Home” can be performed hundreds of instances on TikTok.
His lighthearted demeanor endured. He joked because the photographers snapped related photos of Mr. Trump every day, commenting, “You look the identical.” He stated that he needed historical past books to say his vigor as he bounded up the steps to the bench. He bantered together with his court docket workers and supplied legal professionals properly needs on their birthdays.
The choose’s tone lent itself to a permissive ambiance, and Mr. Trump and his authorized workforce shortly capitalized. They routinely delivered lengthy speeches lamenting the unfairness of the proceedings. They persuaded Justice Engoron to permit hours of testimony from knowledgeable witnesses, over the protestations of the lawyer common’s workplace. Justice Engoron even permitted Donald Trump Jr. to ship a glowing slide presentation about his household’s actual property holdings.
“Let him go forward and discuss how nice the Trump Group is,” Justice Engoron stated.
Greater than two hours later, the eldest Trump son had mentioned his household’s historical past in actual property courting to the Yukon gold rush, together with the interiors of Trump Tower and his father’s love of golf. Because the lawyer common’s legal professionals bristled, Justice Engoron sometimes smiled on the witness.
Justice Engoron’s tendency to offer a inexperienced mild was not merely the whim of an unconventional authorized thoughts. He defined early within the trial that he wished to keep away from a retrial of the case, or any second-guessing of his choices from an appeals court docket.
“To me, that mainly speaks in favor of permitting, slightly than disallowing, the questions, solutions, knowledgeable testimony, et cetera,” he stated.
The choose had just a few pink traces. He was infuriated by assaults on Ms. Greenfield, his principal legislation clerk. Her unusually seen position within the case — she sits subsequent to Justice Engoron on the bench and confers with him on authorized issues — drew harsh criticism from the protection.
Through the first week of the trial, Justice Engoron issued a restricted gag order prohibiting Mr. Trump from commenting on his workers after the previous president shared an image of Ms. Greenfield with Senator Chuck Schumer on Fact Social, calling her “Schumer’s Girlfriend.” Weeks later, the choose fined Mr. Trump $5,000 after studying {that a} copy of the publish was nonetheless seen on Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign web site. On the time, he threatened steeper fines and doable imprisonment.
However the feedback about Ms. Greenfield saved coming. In one of many trial’s most placing moments, Justice Engoron known as Mr. Trump to the witness stand and questioned him about his assertion to reporters referring to “an individual who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the choose, “maybe extra partisan than he’s.”
Mr. Trump argued that he had been speaking about another person. However Justice Engoron discovered that Mr. Trump’s solutions weren’t credible and fined him an extra $10,000 for once more attacking the legislation clerk.
“I’m very protecting of my workers,” Justice Engoron stated that day. “I don’t need anyone killed.”
Behind the scenes, the choose was inundated with a whole lot of threats from Mr. Trump’s supporters. They escalated at any time when Mr. Trump personally focused Justice Engoron and Ms. Greenfield, court docket officers stated, requiring fixed re-evaluation of the court docket’s safety protocols. Mr. Trump falsely accused the choose’s spouse of sharing anti-Trump rhetoric on social media and his son of receiving preferential entry to the courtroom.
The dysfunction within the courtroom and the clamor outdoors of it appeared to have little impression on Justice Engoron’s view of the case and the elemental situation at trial: Mr. Trump’s legal responsibility.
At one level, the choose denied the protection’s movement to finish the case on the spot after bankers testified that they’d been happy with Mr. Trump as a consumer. “The mere proven fact that the lenders have been pleased doesn’t imply that the statute wasn’t violated,” Justice Engoron stated.
On an one other event that Mr. Trump’s legal professionals requested him to throw out the case, Justice Engoron was unyielding.
“No means, no how is that this case being dismissed,” he stated. “There’s sufficient proof on this case to fill this courtroom.”
William Okay. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
