MMR November 2 2023 - Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
Nov 2, 2023 20:42:28 GMT -5
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Post by mrobvious on Nov 2, 2023 20:42:28 GMT -5
A defense lawyer took a pointed verbal swipe at the law clerk in the Trump civil fraud trial Thursday, prompting anger from the judge, who accused the lawyer of misogyny and threatened to gag him and his colleagues.
The temper-flaring, accusations, and judicial threats were sparked in the Manhattan courtroom by a wise-crack comment from Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, who was raising a routine objection during late-afternoon testimony by Eric Trump.
Maybe you should ask your law clerk, first, Kise said, his voice sarcastic as he addressed the judge in the non-jury trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
Engoron has twice fined Donald Trump for similarly attacking the law clerk, Allison Greenfield, an attorney who sits three feet to the right of the judge, confers with him frequently via notes and has become a stalking horse for the defense.
Hearing her referenced with derision yet again, the typically affable judge hit the figurative roof, as Eric Trump watched, blank-faced, from the witness stand.
"All joking aside, do not refer to my staff again," the judge said angrily.
"The person sitting alongside of me is my principal law clerk," he said, adding that she is there to confer with him on legal issues that arise at trial.
"Sometimes I think there may be a bit of misogyny," the judge told Kise. "If you keep referring to my principal law clerk, I will consider expanding the gag order to include you and your attorneys."
The current gag order bars Trump and his co-defendants from any spoken or online statements attacking the judge's law staff.
Kise pushed back.
"Frequently, I feel like I am fighting two adversaries," meaning the state attorney general's office and Greenfield, he complained to the judge. "It's a fair comment as a lawyer."
"I'm sitting here and I have to respond to Mr. Amer and their arguments," Kise said, referring to one of the assistant attorney generals, Andrew Amer.
"But there is someone else sending you information on a different basis," Kise said of Greenfield, who he claimed he'd seen pass 30 notes to the judge on the previous day. "All I'm trying to say is that gives off the appearance of impropriety."
Kise also insisted, "I'm not a misogynist," citing as proof, "I have a 17-year-old daughter."
A second Trump attorney, Alina Habba, leaped to Kise's defense.
"I have issues with the person who is also sitting on the bench," she said. "I do feel, like Mr. Kise, that your position is often what you're given in notes."
The heated exchange was tangential to a weightier effort by the attorney general's office.
Eric Trump had spent the afternoon defending his sometimes faulty memory under direct examination by Amer, who is a special counsel to state Attorney General Letitia James.
Honing to what he'd testified in an earlier deposition, Eric Trump repeated on the witness stand Thursday that he was never involved in drafting the decade of annual net-worth statements that his father used to secure more than $400 million in bank loans.
The AG says these statements contained as much as $3.6 billion in intentional exaggerations each year; they are at the center of the ongoing trial.
On Thursday, Amer showed Eric Trump decade-old emails that appeared to contradict his claim that he was never involved in preparing the statements. He dug in under questioning.
The temper-flaring, accusations, and judicial threats were sparked in the Manhattan courtroom by a wise-crack comment from Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, who was raising a routine objection during late-afternoon testimony by Eric Trump.
Maybe you should ask your law clerk, first, Kise said, his voice sarcastic as he addressed the judge in the non-jury trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
Engoron has twice fined Donald Trump for similarly attacking the law clerk, Allison Greenfield, an attorney who sits three feet to the right of the judge, confers with him frequently via notes and has become a stalking horse for the defense.
Hearing her referenced with derision yet again, the typically affable judge hit the figurative roof, as Eric Trump watched, blank-faced, from the witness stand.
"All joking aside, do not refer to my staff again," the judge said angrily.
"The person sitting alongside of me is my principal law clerk," he said, adding that she is there to confer with him on legal issues that arise at trial.
"Sometimes I think there may be a bit of misogyny," the judge told Kise. "If you keep referring to my principal law clerk, I will consider expanding the gag order to include you and your attorneys."
The current gag order bars Trump and his co-defendants from any spoken or online statements attacking the judge's law staff.
Kise pushed back.
"Frequently, I feel like I am fighting two adversaries," meaning the state attorney general's office and Greenfield, he complained to the judge. "It's a fair comment as a lawyer."
"I'm sitting here and I have to respond to Mr. Amer and their arguments," Kise said, referring to one of the assistant attorney generals, Andrew Amer.
"But there is someone else sending you information on a different basis," Kise said of Greenfield, who he claimed he'd seen pass 30 notes to the judge on the previous day. "All I'm trying to say is that gives off the appearance of impropriety."
Kise also insisted, "I'm not a misogynist," citing as proof, "I have a 17-year-old daughter."
A second Trump attorney, Alina Habba, leaped to Kise's defense.
"I have issues with the person who is also sitting on the bench," she said. "I do feel, like Mr. Kise, that your position is often what you're given in notes."
The heated exchange was tangential to a weightier effort by the attorney general's office.
Eric Trump had spent the afternoon defending his sometimes faulty memory under direct examination by Amer, who is a special counsel to state Attorney General Letitia James.
Honing to what he'd testified in an earlier deposition, Eric Trump repeated on the witness stand Thursday that he was never involved in drafting the decade of annual net-worth statements that his father used to secure more than $400 million in bank loans.
The AG says these statements contained as much as $3.6 billion in intentional exaggerations each year; they are at the center of the ongoing trial.
On Thursday, Amer showed Eric Trump decade-old emails that appeared to contradict his claim that he was never involved in preparing the statements. He dug in under questioning.
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