Investigation Into Judge Engoron Launched Despite Claim He Was ‘Uninfluenced’ Before Trump Verdict

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has launched a probe into a New York real estate attorney’s claim that he advised Judge Arthur Engoron in the case against former President Donald Trump.

Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told WNBC-TV that he had a courthouse conversation with Engoron three weeks before the judge would slap Trump with a $454 million penalty for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.

New York judges are barred from considering outside opinions in such a way when litigating a case, yet Bailey said he discussed the legal questions at length with the judge.

“I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago,” Bailey said in an interview with the station on Feb. 16, just hours before the judge issued his ruling.

“I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse], and I told my client, ‘I need to go,’” he recounted.

Trending:

Election Integrity Win in Georgia: Election Board Reprimands Fulton County, Will Appoint Monitor for 2024

“And I walked over, and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why … I really want him to get it right,” the attorney continued.

Bailey said he knew Engoron after appearing before him “hundreds of times” in the course of his employment.

“He had a lot of questions, you know, about certain cases. We went over it,” the attorney said.

He said he “explained to” Engoron that ruling against Trump would have far-reaching implications beyond destroying the former president, including damaging New York’s economy.

Was Engoron biased against Trump?

If Trump were forced to pay a hefty fine and shut down his business, it would make other companies concerned about similarly being targeted at any time, even when there were no actual damages or victims, as in this case.

Trump’s legal team raised the same points, which Engoron ignored in his verdict.

In a later interview with WNBC, Bailey walked back his claims slightly, saying they “didn’t even mention the word ‘Donald Trump’” during their conversation.

However, the attorney admitted that it was understood exactly what they were discussing.

“Well, obviously, we weren’t talking about the Mets,” Bailey said.

Related:

Sean Hannity Follows Through on His Vow to Ditch New York for Good, Lists $13.75 Million Mansion for Sale

According to the New York State Rules of Judicial Conduct, “a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers.”

While Engoron would be allowed to “obtain the advice of a disinterested expert,” it would require notice to everyone involved in the case with the chance to respond.

Al Baker, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration, denied that the judge had broken those rules.

“The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” Baker said in a statement, according to WNBC.

Bailey has said he’s not a fan of Trump, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s telling the truth.

After all, he’s the kind of attorney who had his law license suspended for allegedly telling a party in a case that they “should just kill themselves,” an appellate court found in 2019.

Still, everything about Engoron and how he applied the law was questionable, even without Bailey’s accusation.

It’s clear that anti-Trump zealots in New York, including Engoron and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, blatantly targeted the former president.

James brought the civil lawsuit, and Engoron dutifully imposed a ridiculous penalty that would have greatly reduced Trump’s wealth had it not been lowered to $175 million.

They did this without much to go on besides criminalizing a common business practice that is part of the dance between borrowers and lenders.

Engoron may or may not have acted on Bailey’s advice, but it’s crystal clear that the judge had a mission that had nothing to do with justice.


A Note from Our Deputy Managing Editor:

 

I heard a chilling comment the other day: “We don’t even know if an election will be held in 2024.” 

 

That wasn’t said by a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday prophet. No, former U.S. national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said that to the founder of The Western Journal, Floyd Brown.

 

Gen. Flynn’s warning means that the 2024 election is the most important election for every single living American. If we lose this one to the wealthy elites who hate us, hate God, and hate what America stands for, we can only assume that 248 years of American history and the values we hold dear to our hearts may soon vanish.

 

The end game is here, and as Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

 

All of this means that without you, it’s over. We have the platform, the journalists, and the experience to fight back hard, but Big Tech is strangling us through advertising blacklists, shadow bans, and algorithms. Did you know that we’ve been blacklisted by 90% of advertisers? Without direct support from you, our readers, we can’t continue the fight.

 

Can we count on your support? It may not seem like much, but a Western Journal Membership can make all the difference in the world because when you support us directly, you cut Big Tech out of the picture. They lose control. 

 

A monthly Western Journal Membership costs less than one coffee and breakfast sandwich each month, and it gets you access to ALL of our content — news, commentary, and premium articles. You’ll experience a radically reduced number of ads, and most importantly you will be vitally supporting the fight for America’s soul in 2024.

 

We are literally counting on you because without our members, The Western Journal would cease to exist. Will you join us in the fight? 

 

Sincerely,

Josh Manning

Deputy Managing Editor

The Western Journal

Source link