NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is attacking the judge handling the New York attorney general’s fraud suit against him and his company, calling her “vicious, biased and vile” in a social media post just a few days before the first trial of the case. hearing.
The former president, who has been on the losing side of Justice Arthur Engoron’s decisions in the pastcoupled Friday’s criticism with complaints that — as a politician — he should not be forced to take legal action until after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
In a separate case, opening statements are set for Monday in the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial after jury selection ends Friday.
Trump, who has been laying the groundwork for a potential comeback run for president in 2024, complained in a post on his Truth Social platform that he had to deal with simultaneous legal action in the run-up to an election that could put Republicans back in control of one or both houses of Congress.
“In breaking with a long and strong tradition, where matters concerning politicians should not be raised or judged shortly before, or during, a major election (mid-terms), I have THREE, directed and inspired by the Democrats, who absolutely refused. to move the date,” Trump wrote. “They asked for it to be now. So much for tradition and unwritten rules and laws!!!”
There are currently three active cases involving Trump or the Trump Organization in New York courts.
The company’s criminal trial for tax fraudwhich includes allegations that senior executives received off-the-books compensation, may last until December. Six alternate jurors were selected Friday to complete the panel needed for the trial.
On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the Bronx in a civil lawsuit filed by protesters who say they were roughly by Trump’s security guards.
Trump’s outburst about Engoro came in the third case, a civil suit brought by Attorney General Letitia James, after an administrative judge on Tuesday refused to reassign the case to another judge.
Engoron, a Democrat, had repeatedly ruled against Trump in disputes over the calls, holding him in contempt. and fining him 110 thousand dollars because he was slow in delivering the documents and forcing him to sit for a deposit – testimony in which Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
On Social Truth, Trump said the only person worse than James was Engoron.
“His name is Arthur Engoron and he is a vicious, biased and significant ‘rubber stamp’ for the Communist takeover of the great and prosperous American company that I have built over a long period of years,” Trump wrote.
A court spokesman said Engoron, a judge since 2003, had no comment.
James’ lawsuit, the product of a three-year investigation into Trump’s business practices, alleges that he and the Trump Organization inflated his net worth by billions of dollars. and defrauded banks and others for years about the value of assets, including his golf courses, hotels and Mar-a-Lago estate.
James, a Democrat, is seeking $250 million and a permanent ban on Trump, a Republican, from doing business in the state.
In a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Engoron will weigh James’ request for an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s activities after she alleged the company was taking steps to avoid potential penalties.such as the incorporation of a new entity called the Trump II Organization.
At the same time, the FBI is continuing to investigate Trump’s storage of sensitive government documents at Mar-a-Lago.A special grand jury in Georgia is investigating whether Trump or others tried to influence state election officials and last week, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 uprising issued a subpoena to Trump.
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