Trump’s Attorneys Seek a Mistrial in New York for Judicial ‘Bias,’ Leaning into Attacks on Judge and His Law Clerk
Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys moved for a mistrial in the ongoing civil fraud case on Wednesday morning, alleging an “appearance of bias” by the presiding judge and his principal law clerk.
The mistrial motion hit the docket on Wednesday, as Trump’s defense witnesses continue to testify in a civil fraud trial filed by New York attorney General Letitia James that could sink the former president’s business empire in New York.
Before trial began, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered the dissolution of the New York corporations owned by Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump, and two of his business associates.
Trump’s attorneys have appealed that ruling, along with a sanctions order against them and a gag order barring Trump from attacking any member of his staff. Engoron recently expanded that order to bar Trump’s attorneys from discussing his “confidential” communications with his staff, though he gave the attorneys some latitude to address the topic in their mistrial motion.
Though Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba previously vowed to handle the topic “delicately,” the motion’s discussion of the clerk’s role in the case is blunt.
“Specifically, the Court’s own conduct, coupled with the Principal Law Clerk, Allison Greenfield’s (‘Principal Law Clerk’) unprecedented role in the trial and extensive, public partisan activities, would cause even a casual observer to question the Court’s partiality,” the mistrial motion states. “Thus, only the grant of a mistrial can salvage what is left of the rule of law.”
New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron is seen with his law clerk Allison Greenfield in the courtroom before the start of the third day of the civil fraud trial of former US President Donald Trump, in New York on Oct. 4, 2023.MARY ALTAFFER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Greenfield’s name appears eight times in the motion, which cites her social media accounts. The phrase “Principal Law Clerk” appears 44 times.
A little more than a month ago on Oct. 3, Trump spread a rumor about Greenfield on his platform Truth Social suggesting—without any evidence—that she had been having an affair with a Democratic politician. Engoron ordered Trump to delete the “untrue” and “disparaging” social media post, imposing a gag order limited to statements about his staff. The judge found that Trump violated the order twice, fining him $15,000 in total, later expanding it to include his lawyers.
In justifying those actions, Engoron cited the safety of his staff and the cascade of threats that he received.
“Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages,” the judge wrote on Nov. 3. “The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm.”
Trump’s second violation of the gag order occurred after he criticized the “partisan” individual who sat directly “alongside” the judge during court proceedings. The former president made that remark during the testimony of Michael Cohen, and his attorney Christopher Kise claimed that Trump was referring to his former fixer.
Engoron ruled that excuse was not credible, noting that Greenfield sits “alongside” him and witnesses sit farther away at a lower elevation. Photographs of the judge and his clerk embedded in the mistrial motion show their proximity at Engoron’s “right-hand side.”
“Only a judge, not an unelected staff member, may exercise judicial authority under the New York Constitution, and the People of New York declined to elect the Principal Law Clerk when she ran for office,” the motion states.
Greenfield once ran for the position of a civil court judge, and the defense cites her campaign’s social media accounts in their motion.
“She therefore has no constitutional authority to act as a ‘co-judge,’ and the impropriety of her participation is further magnified by the fact that she has violated a separate canon of ethics by making partisan political contributions in excess of strict limits, including to organizations actively supporting attorney General James and opposing President Trump,” the motion continues, emphasizing those words in original.
The motion does not cite any direct contributions to James or her campaign, but it notes that the local political organizations that Greenfield contributed to also supported the attorney general.
In a post on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, legal analyst and attorney Bradley Moss commented on the motion: “I find this to be little more than a political screed egregiously deficient in proving the facts alleged are commensurate with past cases in which bias has been found.”
Read the motion here:
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