The Judge Soon To Stand Down Donald Trump

Judge Arthur Engoron has taken vicious abuse from Trump and never wavered.

Coming on the heels of Trump’s $83.3 million pasting at the hands of the jury in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, Judge Arthur F. Engoron (en-GOR-un) was slated to deliver his judgment in the NY fraud case brought by Attorney General Leticia James against Trump, his companies, and his sons by the end of January. But a bombshell allegation by the court-appointed monitor responsible for preventing the Trumps from hiding money while the case goes on found something potentially devastating: an undeclared loan of $48 million which potentially implies massive tax fraud on Trump’s part. That discovery has delayed the Engoron’s penalty assessment—which could be a business “death sentence” for Trump as the penalty may be as high as $370,000,000, which would wipe out most of Trump’s readily available cash. And what may be as devastating, Engoron may also bar Trump from ever doing business in New York state again.

While we wait, it might be good to take a look at Engoron because rarely has anyone on the bench exposed himself to as much danger as this man has.

A few days ago, the brilliant attorney and commentator Joyce Vance (see her Substack page) noted that, in the wake of an endless onslaught of attacks an d threats against Republican Representatives and Senators who don’t support his every whim, only the courts have held the line. The courts, most of the judges (which the exception of Aileen Cannon), and an array of honest juries have taken Trump to task despite the fact that some jurors are passionate Trump supporters. That is encouraging if not downright inspiring.

Nobody has taken bigger hits than the judges in these cases. Jack Smith is slandered on a daily basis, Trumpists are setting up Fani Willis to take a stratospheric fall—though she may definitely have broken ethics codes on this one—and New York AG Leticia James has suffered one vicious mouthing off after another and some of the most racist hate speech we’ve heard in this country in decades.

But it’s Arthur Engoron and his clerk Allison Greenfield—both Jewish—who have been subjected to the worst abuse. As we headed into fall of 2023, authorities were panicking that Trump, inciting a rabid online MAGA contingent, might get one of them killed. First Trump wrote:

“Schumer’s girlfriend, Alison [sic] R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!”

According to court documents, Trump released “Ms. Greenfield’s personal information, including her personal cell phone number and personal email addresses.” This opened the floodgates of abuse. The court papers continue that “she has been subjected to, on a daily basis, harassing, disparaging comments and antisemitic tropes.”

The Department of Public Safety noted that Greenfield “has been receiving approximately 20-30 calls per day to her personal cell phone and approximately 30-50 messages per day on combined sites of social media, Linkedln and two (2) personal email addresses.” 

Then, reported Rolling Stone, “Engoron leveled a narrowly tailored gag order against Trump barring him from targeting his staff; the order was later expanded to include the former president’s attorneys. Trump was fined in late October for violating Engoron’s order.”

And while the threats against Greenfield continued to burgeon, the threats against Engoron became life-threatening. Now, do note that Trump doesn’t directly threaten to kill anyone, but what he apparently hopes will happen is that his unhinged acolytes will start killing judges, witnesses, jurors, and plaintiffs, including private citizens like E. Jean Carroll—whom one MAGAn said should be “raped and murdered”—and attorneys general. Essentially, he unleashes the dogs of war against any who try to bring to justice about anything.

Engoron has had the worst of it: Here’s one message he got, and inserted into the middle of it a racist comment tagging black Attorney General Leticia James as a monkey, one of the worst of all racist tropes. Reports Rolling Stone:

“Everything about you screams little fagot dork. So again. I hope they. ******* bury your ugly ***. You and that fat ******* ***** ******* planet of the apes ******* star Letisha [James] the ***********. Little ******* Jews and, filthy little Jews […] That’s you. And I hate that word, and I hate putting people under group but you are filthy little Jews,” one voicemail said, adding that Engoron “should be assassinated. You should be killed […] You should be executed. But on trial executed for your crimes.”

“We are going to get you and anyone of you dirty, backstabbing, lying, cheating American. You are nothing but a bunch of communists. We are coming to remove you permanently.” 

But perhaps the worst experience of all for Engoron was that, on the day the judge allowed Trump to rant at the end of the proceedings—and while Trump defamed and slandered him before the court—police were at Engoron’s home because some MAGAn or other had called in a bomb threat against Engoron’s wife and family. At the time he’s hearing this vicious bully spew invective, Engoron is sitting on the bench wondering if his wife will be dead by the time he gets home.

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The courage of Judge Engoron—and of Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan, Judge Lewis Kaplan, and E. Jean Carroll herself—of Leticia James and Jack Smith—are, as Joyce Vance says, what is saving democracy in this country because they have the spine to stand up to a criminal.

They will never be safe again. And equivalent to the specter of Engoron’s listening to Trump rage—and lie and slander and defame him while he worries that his wife is bleeding out on her kitchen floor—is the stunning final instruction Judge Lewis Kaplan gave the jury that slapped an $83.3 million judgment on the serial woman-abuser and rapist Trump is: “Never tell anyone you were on this jury.” Because death will stalk every one of these people until their dying days if their names ever come out.

Trump’s storm troopers will continue to stalk and threaten every judge, every woman who sues him for sexual abuse, every prosecutor, every witness, every court clerk, every special investigator—and every juror whose name they can dig up.

And Trump will continue, as Mitt Romney reports, to threaten anybody in the Republican Party who breaks rank. “Think of your children,” Senators and Representatives cautioned each other when the vote to impeach Trump over the January 6th insurrection came up. Romney knows that’s why the impeachment filed. Had these legislators not felt threatened with grievous bodily harm to or the deaths of their spouses and children—and Nancy Pelosi’s viciously hammer-bludgeoned husband is ever on their minds—Trump would have been removed from office then.

Courage failed Congress. It has not failed the prosecutors, jurors, and judges who have stood down the sadistic Dark Tetrad monster Donald Trump is.

Thank you, Judge Engoron. We are forever in your debt.

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