- Donald Trump and his sons had repeatedly asked for a new judge in NY's $250 million fraud lawsuit.
- The current judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, once held Trump in contempt of court.
Donald Trump and his two eldest sons on Wednesday lost what had been their escalating legal effort to switch judges in New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million fraud lawsuit.
The suit, filed September 21, alleges Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization exaggerated his worth by billions of dollars in business filings over the past decade; it will now remain in the courtroom of the same Manhattan judge that once held the former president in contempt and fined him $110,000.
The judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, has presided over two years of often heated legal disputes in the run-up to the lawsuit, refereeing as James' side fought with Trump's side to get the business documents and deposition testimony she needed for her investigation.
During hearings over the past several months, Trump's attorney Alina Habba has openly tangled with Engoron to the point where, in February, his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, warned her to stop interrupting when the judge was speaking.
"If you would like a bunch of more affidavits, you can order that," Habba complained to the judge during a heated May hearing on the contempt matter. "You can order anything you like," Habba snapped.
"I don't understand why we are still in contempt," she complained in a hearing in June, when Engoron refused to budge on holding Trump in contempt for failing to fully comply with James' subpoenas for his documents.
"I just think the opinion is based on who my client is," she told the judge then, implying he was biased in the case. "And that's concerning to me."
That protracted evidence dispute, which involved more than 800 court filings and exhibits, technically remains an open and related court matter, with Engoron still its judge.
In his written decision on Wednesday, Engoron's boss, Administrative Judge Adam Silvera, ruled that Engoron should preside over the lawsuit as well, as a matter of "judicial economy and expediency."
Lawyers for the attorney general had argued that moving courtrooms would only delay things by "requiring another judge to develop the level of familiarity Justice Engoron already has developed over several years."
The attorney general is hoping to set a trial date before the end of 2023.
Silvera in Wednesday's decision also dinged Trump's side for having delayed accepting service of the lawsuit for three weeks, even as lawyers for Donald Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr., filed written requests to have it moved to the court's commercial division. Ivanka Trump did not join the request to change judges.
That delay also delayed his ruling, Silvera wrote. Meanwhile, Engoron has only become more enmeshed in the new lawsuit.
Last week, he set an October 31 date for a hearing on the attorney general's demand that the Trump Organization, the former president's multibillion-dollar real-estate and golf-resort empire, be immediately ordered to submit to an independent monitor.
The attorney general is also seeking an order from Engoron barring the Trump Organization "from engaging in any fraudulent or illegal acts" while the lawsuit winds its way through pretrial litigation that could go on for another two years.
James is especially concerned that Trump may try to move assets from the Trump Organization to a new entity he created, the Trump Organization II.
Habba called James' latest demands a "stunt." In a press statement Thursday, Habba said, "We have repeatedly provided assurance, in writing, that the Trump Organization has no intention of doing anything improper."