State of New York vs Trump, et al - the civil fraud case against the Trump Organization

[Volkonski]

Donald Trump Launches Attack on Judge's Wife

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-j ... ks-1848282

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump lashed out at Judge Arthur Engoron's "Trump hating wife" Dawn Engoron, as well as the judge's court staff whom he has previously been fined for attacking in public statements during the case in New York where he is accused of filing fraudulent financial statements inflating the value of his properties.

The former president repeated allegations that Dawn Engoron was behind an account on X, formerly Twitter, which frequently attacked Trump online. In a previous statement, Dawn Engoron denied that she was behind the @dm_sminxs account. "I do not have a Twitter account. This is not me. I have not posted any anti Trump messages," she told Newsweek.

[Resume18]

Donald Trump Launches Attack on Judge's Wife

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-j ... ks-1848282

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump lashed out at Judge Arthur Engoron's "Trump hating wife" Dawn Engoron, as well as the judge's court staff whom he has previously been fined for attacking in public statements during the case in New York where he is accused of filing fraudulent financial statements inflating the value of his properties.

The former president repeated allegations that Dawn Engoron was behind an account on X, formerly Twitter, which frequently attacked Trump online. In a previous statement, Dawn Engoron denied that she was behind the @dm_sminxs account. "I do not have a Twitter account. This is not me. I have not posted any anti Trump messages," she told Newsweek.

Won't someone arrest this troublesome stochastic terrorist?

[AndyinPA]

Want to take bets on how long this will last?

[Rolodex]

Want to take bets on how long this will last?

Engoron read the order in court today.

[RTH10260]

the former guy goes bonkers and attacks Judge Engorons wife and others

MTN Ben Meiselas

[RTH10260]

Trump seeks "urgent review" of gag order ruling in New York civil fraud case

BY GRAHAM KATES
UPDATED ON: DECEMBER 4, 2023 / 2:47 PM EST / CBS NEWS

Former President Donald Trump intends to appeal a ruling that upheld a gag order in his civil fraud trial in New York, with his attorneys saying Monday that they plan to ask the state's highest court to review the decision.

New York Judge Arthur Engoron issued the order barring Trump from commenting publicly about his staff after the former president published a social media post disparaging Engoron's clerk on Oct. 3, the second day of the trial. The order was later expanded to apply to attorneys in the case.

The judge found that Trump and his campaign violated the gag order twice, and Trump paid $15,000 in fines, before the appeals court temporarily stayed the order on Nov. 16. That hiatus lasted two weeks, while a panel of judges in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court considered, and then rejected, Trump's request to have the gag order lifted.

Trump is now seeking an "urgent review" by New York's highest court, called the Court of Appeals, his attorneys said in a filing. Trump has accused Engoron and the clerk, Allison Greenfield, of bias in his filings.

"Without expedited review, [the defendants] will continue to suffer irreparable injury daily, as they are silenced on matters implicating the appearance of bias and impropriety on the bench during a trial of immense stakes," Trump attorney Clifford Robert wrote. "Petitioners' counsel have no means of preserving evidence of or arguments regarding such bias and impropriety at this time, since the Gag Orders also prohibit in-court statements."



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-gag- ... se-appeal/

[RTH10260]

Re above: Denined - interlocutorial appeal rejected by chief judge

Michael Popok has the details:

[chancery]

I'm generally very down on 15-minute youtube videos that feature a speaker yakking on and on about a development that can be adequately explained in a few paragraphs of text.

The speaker in this one seems to be an experienced lawyer, but one of his main points is that the Appellate Division ghosted Trump's lawyers by setting a briefing schedule on the "motion" (actually an order to show cause, which is a kind of accelerated motion) for expedited treatment that extends into January, which is beyond the likely end of the trial. That's incorrect; the NYAG's opposition papers on the motion for expedited treatment are due on December 11, and argument will be heard later the same day.



It may be that he was talking about the schedule for the underlying appeal, but I haven't seen any scheduling order for the appeal, and even if there was one, the court could issue a revised schedule at or after the hearing on 12/11.

Twitter posters are saying that the motion was procedurally flawed, a conclusion that no one has explained in a way that I understand. I've briefly looked at the rules cited in Trump's papers, but it didn't help.

However, it's notable that the panel order lifting the stay was entered last Thursday, and the motion for expedited treatment was prepared on Sunday and filed today. That's not the right way to do emergency litigation. They should have filed on Friday.

As I've mentioned before, NYS law with respect to appeals to the Court of Appeals (the highest court) is both obscure and complicated, and getting expedited treatment on an interlocutory appeal can be tricky. It's not easy to figure out on short notice. But it should have been obvious back in early October that an expedited appeal to the NY Court of Appeals was a possibility. There was also no reason to assume that the panel would endorse the administrative stay issued by a single judge. Trump's lawyers had adequate time to hire specialized co-counsel, figure out all of the various procedural possibilities, and have emergency papers of all kinds drafted and ready to go.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[p0rtia]

A consensus seems to be building amongst the talking heads that TFG pushed to get the court-staff gag order stayed again/lifted (I'm losing track) so that when he testifies on the 11th Dec., he would be able to trash the court clerk with the hope of causing a mistrial.

I'm all in on this. Anyone who doesn't think this hadn't occurred to him hasn't been paying attention. In fact, I would not be surprised if he does it anyway.

I would kill to have audio for this.

[Maybenaut]

He’s more likely to find himself in contempt.

I think as a practical matter the only way you can really get a mistrial ruling in the middle of a trial is if the other side does something so outrageous that you can’t get a fair trial. Since the judge is the one who decides, he’s not going to reward misconduct with a do-over. If Trump acts up, I think judge Engoron is more likely to put him in a cell or otherwise remove him from the courtroom until he can behave himself than he is to grant a mistrial.

[p0rtia]

IANAL, but I am quite sure that Engoron and his team have discussed how to react if Trash attempts to disrupt or sidetrack the proceedings.

[Maybenaut]

IANAL, but I am quite sure that Engoron and his team have discussed how to react if Trash attempts to disrupt or sidetrack the proceedings.

I agree. I just think “grant a mistrial” is pretty far down on the list.

[Kendra]

No link yet (too busy to hunt one down), but I did hear on the teevee news that witnesses today are experts on Mar A Lago values and going to talk up how many billions it's worth. Then Eric stakes the stand.

I really wish there is some way the county tax assessors can take all this testimony on inflated values and up his propter value and taxes

[Rolodex]

No link yet (too busy to hunt one down), but I did hear on the teevee news that witnesses today are experts on Mar A Lago values and going to talk up how many billions it's worth. Then Eric stakes the stand.

I really wish there is some way the county tax assessors can take all this testimony on inflated values and up his propter value and taxes

Exactly. He's bragging about how much it's worth. Fine. We'll agree to that. But he has to pay taxes based on those values, retroactively.

I'm not sure exactly how FL works, but where I live, the assessed value by the county is way below market value. If that's the case in his county, market value - what he's talking about wrt to his assets for loan purposes - won't matter re taxes.

[p0rtia]

IANAL, but I am quite sure that Engoron and his team have discussed how to react if Trash attempts to disrupt or sidetrack the proceedings.

I agree. I just think “grant a mistrial” is pretty far down on the list.

Definitely--on Earth 1. But on Earth 2, where the Orange Menace lives, it's worth a try.

[RVInit]

IANAL, but I am quite sure that Engoron and his team have discussed how to react if Trash attempts to disrupt or sidetrack the proceedings.

I agree. I just think “grant a mistrial” is pretty far down on the list.

Definitely--on Earth 1. But on Earth 2, where the Orange Menace lives, it's worth a try.

I want to see him try this. A 20 minute video of Judge Engoron laughing hysterically would be great, especially if the camera stayed on the OSG's face the whole time. Delicious, that would be.

[northland10]

Mistrial? I'm not sure that's what he's after since it is tougher to have one without a jury. However, getting the judge to lose his cool multiple times could provide the potential for a judicial bias argument on appeal.

[Kendra]

Just heard on CNN, Eric will NOT testify at the fraud trial. Details to come after commercial break

Edit: Maybe a nothing burger, CNN said after the break that the Trump lawyers pulled him to shorten trial time or some similar reason.

[noblepa]

Just heard on CNN, Eric will NOT testify at the fraud trial. Details to come after commercial break

Edit: Maybe a nothing burger, CNN said after the break that the Trump lawyers pulled him to shorten trial time or some similar reason.

The very last thing they want to do is to shorten the trial.

[Kendra]

Just heard on CNN, Eric will NOT testify at the fraud trial. Details to come after commercial break

Edit: Maybe a nothing burger, CNN said after the break that the Trump lawyers pulled him to shorten trial time or some similar reason.

The very last thing they want to do is to shorten the trial.

I did wonder about that. Waiting for the reporters to sort it out.

[p0rtia]

Eye-witness report of the attempt to get the gag order/stay of the gag order overturned on Monday (I've cut the cute but irrelevant "Clueless" material)

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-sho ... rcna128117

Team Trump was ‘Clueless’ in a New York appeals court
With time running out, Team Trump was desperate to rush the appeal of his gag order, only to learn no litigant can bend court schedules to his will.
Dec. 5, 2023, 12:12 PM EST By Lisa Rubin

You might remember that a four-judge panel of New York’s first tier of appeals courts last Thursday lifted the temporary stay of Judge Arthur Engoron’s twin gag orders on Donald Trump and his lawyers in the civil fraud trial against the former president and others.

And that meant that as of Thursday afternoon, Trump was once again prohibited from making any statement, whether in or outside court, about the judge’s courtroom staff, including the judge’s principal law clerk. At that time, I understood, due to the nature of the relief Trump sought and my analysis of New York court rules, that Trump would be stuck with that gag order through the duration of the trial, including his own testimony.

Nonetheless, I was warned that Trump could always swing for the fences with some unusual legal maneuver. And indeed, by Monday morning, Trump’s lawyers filed papers essentially asking a single judge of the same court that lifted the stay to permit him to appeal that order to New York’s highest court, the confusingly-named Court of Appeals, while rushing briefing on the merits of his appeal, both by Wednesday. That would allow them time to secure relief before Trump takes the stand again on Dec. 11 — and empower Trump to rail against the clerk in the courtroom, the hallway and, perhaps most importantly, his online fundraising solicitations.

So by Monday at 3 p.m. ET, I gathered with a handful of journalists at the New York state appeals court. But rather than sitting in an elegant courtroom, we witnessed a surreal scene unfold in the clerk’s office. And the players — an assistant state solicitor general, a lawyer for the court system there on Engoron’s behalf, and Trump lawyers Chris Kise and Cliff Robert — stood at the counter as a court attorney listened from the other side. There, Kise and Robert pleaded to have their filing signed by the appellate judge on duty. They argued no issue could be more important than the ongoing deprivation of the First Amendment rights of their client.

But, the court attorney explained, their request for permission to seek relief from last week’s order was procedurally defective. Instead of seeking relief from a single judge, they should have filed a different kind of motion addressed to a full panel. But even if their filing were treated as a motion, the court attorney continued, the New York attorney general’s office had a right to respond, and under ordinary court rules, its brief would not be due until Dec. 11, the day of Trump’s planned testimony, unless the state would agree to file sooner. And the AG’s office said it would not.

Moreover, the court attorney noted the underlying appeal of the gag order could not be expedited because Team Trump already had agreed its appeal would be “returnable,” or ready for court review, on that same day: Dec. 11.

Kise seemed genuinely flummoxed. Wasn’t there someone, anyone from whom he could get a sooner hearing? We are talking about the speech rights of the former president and the GOP presidential front-runner, he noted, an urgency creeping into his Floridian drawl.

[pipistrelle]

Kise seemed genuinely flummoxed. Wasn’t there someone, anyone from whom he could get a sooner hearing? We are talking about the speech rights of the former president and the GOP presidential front-runner, he noted, an urgency creeping into his Floridian drawl.

[/quote]
Who's a nobody legally, amiright?

[keith]

If Trump acts up, I think judge Engoron is more likely to put him in a cell or otherwise remove him from the courtroom until he can behave himself than he is to grant a mistrial.

Yay! Life in prison for contempt!

[bob]

Mistrial? I'm not sure that's what he's after since it is tougher to have one without a jury.

Yeah: Mistrials are a remedy for other people's behaviors, not a reward for your own bad behavior. And a judge is much less likely to grand a mistrial when there's no jury.

The closest is the fictional "And Justice for All" ending (hidden in case you haven't yet seen a 44-year-old movie):

► Show Spoiler

The defendant's lawyer threw the case to get the defendant a mistrial. Because a party has rights independent of what a lawyer might do.

However, getting the judge to lose his cool multiple times could provide the potential for a judicial bias argument on appeal.

Potential? Sure: any non-frivolous argument may be made on appeal (without fear of sanctions). But I have no doubt the plaintiff and the judge, if such an incident were to occur, would go to every effort to make a record to explain what had happened. So the appellate court could defer to the trial court's discretion and factual findings.

Mouthy defendants, even mouthy criminal defendants, have been removed from courtrooms due to bad behavior. So I expect such a stunt would only generate headlines and attorneys' bills, but not affect the trial or its verdict, even on appeal.

* * *

Moreover, the court attorney noted the underlying appeal of the gag order could not be expedited because Team Trump already had agreed its appeal would be “returnable,” or ready for court review, on that same day: Dec. 11.

I hear everybody saying NYS appellate law is arcane. But I'm still surprised there isn't a method to ask for an immediate ruling. Even if it means dismissing the first appeal and starting from scratch.