George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Judge Arthur Engoron displayed “gross unfairness” in the civil fraud case brought against former President Donald Trump.
Engoron ruled Trump must pay more than $350 million in damages relating to the lawsuit brought forth against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accused Trump and his family of misleading banks by overvaluing their assets. The former president is also barred “from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or any other legal entity in New York for a period of three years,” according to the ruling.
Trump requested a 30-day delay in enforcing the ruling through a letter from his attorney. Engoron said he had “failed” to justify the basis for the potential stay in an emailed reply. The New York attorney general offered to seize Trump’s assets if he could not cover the fine, ABC News reported.
“He [Engoron] just imposed a $355 million judgment with a law that has never been used in this way,” Turley said on “America’s Newsroom” Friday. “That’s the reason, and it’s rather obvious. But you also have people like James, who have never built a thing other than their political careers, who are now treating these buildings as if they’re hers. I mean, she said that she’s eyeballing a couple of properties that she might want to seize like this is a fire sale. And, you know, the fact is that the judge showed absolutely no sense of equity in any of this. His decision is the decision of a single jurist, and this party wants to have a review. But in order to do that, he has to pony up what is about a half a billion dollars.”
“And that has a gross unfairness to it when you combine the use of the law and the size of his judgement and then this requirement for a deposit,” he continued. “But, he just simply brushed those aside, and his tone was, almost bordered on the mocking.”
Engoron previously ruled in September that Trump was liable for fraud and that several of his business licenses in New York should be revoked, The Associated Press reported. An appeals court stayed the ruling in an Oct. 6 decision after Trump’s legal team appealed Engoron’s decision. (RELATED: ‘Mega-Loser State’: Kevin O’Leary Says He Will ‘Never’ Invest In New York After Trump Ruling)
Trump has said on numerous occasion that both James and Engoron are “corrupt people” attempting to interfere in the 2024 election.
“Letitia James, that’s another case altogether. She is a horribly corrupt attorney general and it’s all having to do with election interference,” Trump said. “There were no victims because the banks made a lot of money, they made $100 million. And by the way, I paid approximately $300 million in taxes as the migrants come in and they take over New York, I paid over this period of years over $300 million in taxes and they want me out, oh, let’s see if we can get him out. These are radical left Democrats, they are lunatics and it’s election interfering.”