Representative Elise Stefanik, a member of the House Republican leadership, has filed new documents to his judicial ethics complaint from last week against the judge who supervises the former president donald trumpThe civil fraud trial in New York.
In a letter on Friday, the New York lawmaker supplemented her complaint by attaching the mistrial motion filed by Trump’s lawyers accusing Judge Arthur Engoron of bias. Judge rejected the mistrial offer Friday evening.
The 30-page motion submitted by Trump on Wednesday was “erroneously rejected” by Engoron, Stefanik said in the Friday letter. His original complaint accused the judge of exhibiting “clear judicial bias” against the former president and asked him to recuse himself.
The complaint argued that Engoron had unlawfully infringed on Trump’s protected political speech and violated political contribution rules by donating to Democrats as recently as 2018.
In a statement to NBC News, Stefanik said Friday that the mistrial motion adds “examples of even more egregious misconduct” by Engoron to the complaint filed with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“A week ago, I filed an ethics complaint against Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron for his partisan antics, bias and ferocity toward President Trump,” Stefanik said. “After my complaint, a New York appeals court criticized Judge Engoron for his blatantly unconstitutional gag order. Today, I am supplementing my ethics complaint against Judge Engoron with examples of even more of his egregious misconduct after he simply wrongly dismissed President Trump’s motion for a mistrial.”
In rejecting Trump’s attempt to overturn the trial, Engoron called the former president’s arguments “completely baseless.”
Engoron is presiding over a trial in the $250 million lawsuit, meaning he will render a verdict and determine any resulting penalties. The case arises from a lawsuit filed last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which accuses Trump of inflating asset values for financial gain. She has denied any wrongdoing.
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