Donald Trump fired off on social media Monday, berating the judge overseeing — and deciding the final payout of — the former president's civil fraud case, for questioning the credibility of one of Trump's witnesses. In a series of posts to Truth Social, Trump took aim at New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, dubbing him a "completely biased Democrat judge," and decried Engoron's rulings against Trump's supposed disclaimer clause, cited appraisals of his properties and criticism of his expert witness, New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov.
"Judge Engoron challenges the highly respected Expert Witness for receiving fees, which is standard and accepted practice for Expert Witnesses," Trump wrote the second post. "The ignorant Judge did not even try to listen to the Expert Witness. This is a great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications. The Judge ignores the Law!" Bartov was paid nearly $877,500 for testifying on Trump's behalf during trial. "This was news that Judge Engoron was not happy with, our highly respected Expert Witness was mocked and excoriated by Engoron for telling the Truth, the Courthouse was in disbelief," Trump added in the third post.
Trump also vehemently defended the financial statements he submitted and his property valuations, asserted there was no victim in the case and claimed he was held in high regard by the banks he was found to have defrauded, which he said deemed him qualified for the loans he sought but noted in the post he did not need. On Monday, in a scathing ruling against Trump's latest request for a directed verdict, Engoron wrote that Bartov "lost all credibility" as a witness by claiming Trump’s financial statements were completely accurate despite Engoron's September judgment finding otherwise. "Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say," Engoron wrote.
