The bitter argument between Trump lawyer Christopher Kise and New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron that broke out on Thursday afternoon in a room of the civil court building at 111 Centre Street in Manhattan spilled over well into Friday morning’s proceedings.
When Mr. Kise raised concerns late on Thursday about his perception of anti-Trump bias on the part of the judge and the law clerk seated beside him, Allison Greenfield, the judge responded with vituperation, prompting a long rebuttal from Mr. Kise in which the lawyer repeatedly asserted his good faith and the legitimacy of his concerns.
The catalyst for the war of words was the frequency with which Ms. Greenfield passed notes to Judge Engoron during the testimony of Donald Trump, Jr., on Wednesday and Thursday, and of Eric Trump, on Thursday and Friday morning, respectively.
The brothers were in court to face cross-examination about the truthfulness and accuracy of statements of financial condition regarding Trump family and Trump Organization assets in Chicago, Florida, and elsewhere, and the use of such statements in seeking to secure loans on highly favorable terms from Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions.
Trump Lawyer’s Objections
During the cross-examination of the Trump brothers, Mr. Kise repeatedly raised objections about the relevance of the questions posed to them and about statutes of limitations concerning the events and documents about which Assistant Attorney General Andrew Amer wanted the brothers to testify. In nearly every instance, Judge Engoron overruled Mr. Kise’s objections.At the end of Thursday’s court session, a visibly irritated Mr. Kise rose to state for the record that he could not help observing that the note-passing seemed to happen almost exclusively when witnesses for the defense were on the stand, or when he cross-examined a witness for the plaintiffs.
He added that Judge Engoron’s rulings, such as the dismissal of defense objections or requests to hurry up the defendants’ testimony, often seemed to happen right after the judge read the notes passed to him. The judge never interrupted or lectured the prosecution for any reason, Mr. Kise said. The often brusque treatment of the defense struck the Trump attorney as evidence of a double-standard.
The contents of the notes were known only to Ms. Greenfield and Judge Engoron. This lack of transparency, and the presumed role of the notes in prompting courtroom decisions favoring the prosecution, fostered an appearance of impropriety and of bias against the defendants, Mr. Kise asserted.
But Judge Engoron defended the passing of notes as part of ordinary, day-to-day procedure, and lashed out at Mr. Kise in harsh and highly personal terms, saying that the lawyer’s repeated references to Ms. Greenfield as some kind of low-level legal secretary smacked of misogyny. Ms. Greenfield was merely doing her job, the judge maintained, and it was not up to Mr. Kise to decide the legitimacy of courtroom communications.
Mr. Kise’s colleague, Alina Habba, a managing partner of the law firm Habba Madaio & Associates, quickly interjected that she shared her colleague’s concerns about the seeming impropriety, and that misogyny had nothing to do with his objections.
Mr. Kise himself denied any misogyny on his part, saying he had a 17-year-old daughter and that his concern was for the transparency and fairness of the legal process.
A Rekindled Argument
But these denials at the end of Thursday’s session hardly put the issue to rest. After another round of cross-examination of Eric Trump by the prosecution on Friday morning, Judge Engoron himself took up the issue again. He said there was no bias against the defense and that he had the right to send and receive as many notes as he pleased throughout the course of a proceeding.Mr. Kise retorted that the perceived impropriety on display in Judge Engoron’s courtroom was unbecoming of such a high-profile trial and would make a negative impression on viewers everywhere.
“The entire nation, if not the world, is watching this proceeding,” said Mr. Kise, before going on to describe America as a country long respected for its fair and neutral application of certain legal standards and principles, regardless of who the plaintiff or the defendant in a case might be.
“Nothing here should create the appearance” of having abandoned such principles, he argued.
But to hear Mr. Kise tell it, the judge was repeatedly unfair in his treatment of the defense.
“We are getting told to move on. The rulings are frequently if not inordinately against us on every issue,” he said.
Mr. Kise invoked Section 105C2 of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which he argued preclude the double-standard in evidence in Judge Engoron’s courtroom. The clause in question states, “A judge should respect and comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
“I think it is a legitimate question that needs to be addressed. President Trump, as you know, is here and has made a statement about bias. It is a fair conclusion that in your warnings to counsel, the purpose is to silence any challenge,” he said.
High Expectations
“We all need to take this seriously because the whole world is watching. There is at least a plausible basis to raise inferences of bias,” Mr. Kise stated.This prompted a pointed reply from Assistant Attorney General Amer, who denied any bias or impropriety.
“The notion that bias can be inferred by the number of notes passed between a judge and a clerk is one I have never heard of, and is frivolous,” Mr. Amer stated.
“If the other side has evidence of extrajudicial conduct that they believe is a basis for a mistrial, then make a motion. This is just a waste of time,” he added.
After this heated exchange, Eric Trump briefly took the stand again for further cross-examination until the court adjourned for the weekend.
When the next session begins on Monday morning, the first witness scheduled to take the stand is former President Donald Trump.
