Judge Arthur Engoron name origin explored amid Donald Trump bias claim 

Former President Donald Trump lashed out against Judge Arthur Engoron who is presiding over a fraud case against him and the senior executives at his company on Monday, November 6.

Trump is currently on trial over a fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. In the filing, James accused the former president and his executives of falsely inflating his net worth by billions of dollars. James claimed that Trump willfully lied about the value of his assets, including his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower in New York and his golf course in Scotland, in an effort to deceive banks to lend money to the Trump Organization.

Furthermore, the filings alleged that Trump, alongside his two sons, falsely inflated the value of his assets to obtain loans on favorable terms. Per PEOPLE, in the lawsuit, James asked Trump to pay $250 million in fines, ban his family from operating any New York businesses and ban the former president and the Trump Organization from buying commercial real estate in New York for five years.

While in a partial summary judgment last month, Engoron had already ruled Trump’s company was liable for fraud, the ongoing trial is yet to determine the penalties owed by Trump for increasing the value of his assets. In a ruling last month, judge Engoron wrote that Trump's overvaluing of Mar-a-Lago worth hundreds of millions of dollars "can only be considered fraud.”

During a hearing on Monday, Trump took umbrage to the judge calling him a fraud and went on a tirade about Engoron’s bias against him.

"He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me!” Trump Said ."It’s a terrible thing you’ve done. You know nothing about me, you believe that political hack back there," Trump added, referring to Letitia James in the courtroom, "and that’s unfortunate."

Engoron, who is no stranger to Trump’s outbursts, having been involved in Trump-related cases since 2020, initially appeared nonplussed by the tirade and asked the former president not to give long-winded speeches as this was not a "political rally."

Donald Trump then accused Judge Arthur Engoron of bias as he tried to steer a rambling and combative former president into providing a cogent testimony. Trump also accused Engoron of bias in a rant on his social media app Truth Social earlier this month.

During the course of the trial, the Judge's patience was tested multiple times, but Engoron, whose name means strength and determination in Hebrew, was able to reign in his temper even when Trump told the court: "I'm sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me." In response, Engoron said, "You can attack me in whichever way you want, but please answer the questions."

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All about Judge Arthur Engoron presiding over Donald Trump's fraud case

Judge Arthur Engoron, a Democrat, who has repeatedly ruled against Trump in his New York cases since 2020, is again poised to rule in his fraud case, which has attracted polarized opinions. Engoron who also described himself as a free-speech absolutist has drawn criticism from conservatives for issuing a gag order against Trump to prevent him from speaking about the fraud case outside the courtroom.

According to NBC, Engoron, a Queens native, grew up in East Williston on Long Island and attended The Wheatley School, a public high school in Old Westbury, New York. He attended Columbia University in the 1960s and obtained his law degree from New York University in 1979.

Engoron, who protested the Vietnam War, worked as a litigator and was a law clerk for 11 years for a judge before joining the bench in 2003 as a judge on the New York City Civil Court. In 2013, he was appointed an acting justice of the state’s trial court.

Judge Engoron, who initially appeared unperturbed by Trump’s constant attack on Monday, appeared to lose his temper as the former president continued to ramble in court. As Trump continued to meander, expounding on his responses unrelated to the line of questioning, Engoron directed the president's attorneys to "control him."

"I beseech you to control him if you can," Judge Arthur Engoron said to Trump's legal team. "If you can't, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can."

During the contentious interaction between the Judge and the defense counsel, Trump said, "This is a very, very unfair trial, and I hope the public is watching.” Following the trial, many suggested that Trump was deliberately trying to provoke the judge so his legal team could challenge his ruling on appeal.