Arthur Engoron is on the New York Supreme Court and he’s been supervising the state’s Attorney General’s case against Trump. When she served him with a subpoena for documents on December 2, 2021, Engoron denied a quash filed by Trump's lawyer, but extended the deadline from the end of January to the end of March, 2022. A month later, the judge found Trump in contempt of court for failing to provide the documents and ordered Trump to comply with the subpoena or pay a fine of $10,000 per day. On May 11, Engroron lifted the contempt order and ordered Trump to pay a $110,000 fine.
Yesterday, Engroron ruled that Trump “committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House… Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing. Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations… The decision, days before the start of a non-jury trial [presided over by Engoron] in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, is the strongest repudiation yet of Trump’s carefully coiffed image as a wealthy and shrewd real estate mogul turned political powerhouse.”
AP also pointed out that “James’ lawsuit does not carry the potential of prison time… [but] James has asked Engoron to ban Trump and his three eldest children from ever again running a company based in New York. She also wants Trump and the Trump Organization barred from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions for five years, among other sanctions. The $250 million in penalties she is seeking is the estimated worth of benefits derived from the alleged fraud, she said.”
Chances are the suit Engoron will be presiding over next week is going to go even worse for Trump. The judge “tore apart what he called the Trump family’s ‘bogus arguments’ and obstreperous conduct. And he summed up the entire defense as ‘a fantasy world, not the real world.’ … He brushed off the Trumps’ attempt to whittle down the lawsuit ahead of a trial that could drain the wealthy family’s bank accounts… In his decision on Tuesday, Engoron also decided to impose sanctions on the Trumps’ lawyers over the AG’s accusations that they have acted unprofessionally by raising ridiculous arguments and delaying the case this long… He ordered the entire Trump legal team— Michael Madaio, Clifford Robert, Michael Farina, Christopher Kise, and Armen Morian— to each pay $7,500, a punishment that will also serve as a blemish on their professional records.”
Trump must have forgotten Engoron is the judge in his case next week too, the one that's going to cost him a quarter billion dollars. After the verdict yesterday, he posted this:
So, one question now is how much of an albatross will Trump be around the necks of down-ballot candidates? Just in New York’s media market there are 8 incumbents already in dire straits (or headed in that direction): Nick LaLota, Andrew Garbarino, George Santos, Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Tom Kean. But smart candidates in swing districts across the country will use this case against their opponents. In fact, yesterday Julia Manchester reported that GOP concerns are mounting over the impact Trump could have on competitive House races this cycle as the party looks to hold onto its narrow majority in the lower chamber.
She noted that “Many Republicans blamed the former president last cycle for the party’s lackluster performance in what was supposed to be a red wave year. This time around, Republican primary voters are falling in line behind Trump, but fears persist he could drive away moderate and independent voters in swing districts across the country. ‘When you go back and look at what we saw in the past three elections, really, there were a lot of seats that were left on the table that Republicans should have won and a lot of that is due to how Trump has been a drag for Republicans,’ said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist… ‘I think for a lot of Republicans, they prefer to stay out of Donald Trump’s gaze,’ Heye said. ‘They know that he’s there, but they don’t necessarily want to campaign with him. Some of that may be maybe avoidable, or maybe unavoidable.’”
Many of the swing districts this year are in states that are swing states at the national level, including Arizona’s first [Schweikert] and sixth [Ciscomani] congressional districts, as well as Pennsylvania’s 7th and 8th congressional districts. However, several Republican incumbents are running in the Democratic strongholds of New York and California, such as [mainstream conservative] Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Marc Molinaro (R-NY).
“In a perfect world, you have a [mainstream] Republican in those districts as your nominee. You have Nikki Haley as your nominee, not that she’s moderate, but she’s not an inflection point where it’s a constant battle [of], ‘Do you support what this candidate said?’” said Tom Doherty, who worked as an aide to former New York Gov. George Pataki (R). “You don’t need that in a general election, particularly when you’re running in a close race.”
One factor House Republican candidates and incumbents won’t be able to avoid is Democrats moving to tie them to Trump.
“Just ask any of them about his criminal indictments, lies, and dangerous ideas like defunding federal law enforcement, and watch them stumble over themselves to avoid giving a straight answer. Why? They know how toxic it is to be associated with the man from Mar-a-Lago,” said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
As you know if you read DWT with any kind of regularity, the Democrats have been outperforming in a big way all cycle. Of the 30 special elections, Democrats outperformed in 24 of them.