NY AG opposes Trump motion for civil fraud judge to recuse himself
Judge Arthur Engoron presiding over closing arguments in January.
By Jeremy Herb and Lauren del Valle, CNN
(CNN) — The New York attorney general’s office accused Donald Trump of undertaking yet another effort to “undermine the Court’s legitimacy” by calling for the judge in the former president’s civil fraud trial to recuse himself over communications with a real estate attorney.
Last week, Trump’s lawyers asked New York Judge Arthur Engoron – who ordered the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to pay nearly half a billion dollars in a judgment earlier this year – to recuse himself from the case, alleging the judge engaged in “prohibited communications” with lawyer Adam Bailey before issuing his decision.
Trump’s attorneys said if Engoron would not recuse from the case they are seeking an evidentiary hearing to delve into the judge’s reported conversation with Bailey.
The attorney general’s office opposed the recusal motion in a new filing Wednesday, writing that the factual basis for the request was “pure sophistry.”
“Their motion springs from, and rests exclusively on, a single NBC News article about a lawyer with no involvement in this case purportedly mentioning to the Court during an impromptu encounter in the hallway of the courthouse his thoughts about New York’s business fraud statute,” the attorney general’s office said.
The AG’s office added, “Even assuming that the encounter occurred as reported secondhand by NBC News, it was not an ‘ex parte communication’ because it was not specifically about this case but rather an abstract comment on the law.”
In their filings last week, Trump’s attorneys cited Bailey’s interview with NBC New York the day the verdict against Trump was rendered in February, in which Bailey said, he “had the ability to speak to [this Court] three weeks ago … I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse] and I told my client, ‘I need to go.’ And I walked over and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think [about the case] and why … I really want him to get it right.”
A lawyer for Bailey on Tuesday asked Engoron to block a subpoena from Trump tied to the former president’s recent move to get the judge off the case.
In a filing, Bailey accused Trump’s lawyers of mounting a fishing expedition in their subpoena for “communications and documents relating to communications between [Bailey] and the Hon. Arthur F. Engoron, J.S.C., or any member of the Court’s Staff.”
The real estate attorney told CNN last week that he only spoke with Engoron about his September summary judgment decision “because that’s the only thing I discussed with reporters.”
In February, Engoron found Trump, his adult sons and company were liable for fraud, returning a $454 million verdict. Trump’s appeal of the verdict is pending, and Engoron is still overseeing a monitor who he put in place to oversee the Trump Organization’s finances.
CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
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