A New York judge began hearing former President Trump’s civil fraud case on Tuesday. Narrowed down summonses Before the multimillion-dollar judgment was handed down, notice was given to outside counsel who had advised ex parte on the case.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump’s subpoena to New York real estate lawyer Adam Reitman Bailey was intended to “unfairly exhaustively scrutinize” every communication between Trump and the lawyer, noting that Bailey and his firm appear before Trump “frequently” and that unrelated conversations were likely to be caught up in the broad request.
But Engoron acknowledged the subpoena was not “totally without merit” and argued that Bailey’s “extraordinary assertions against the media” paved the way for Trump’s lawyers to seek any communications or documents related to the conversations.
On February 16, the day Engolon won a $464 million judgment plus interest for falsifying Trump’s net worth for tax and insurance purposes, BaileyHe said in an interview with NBC New York.He reportedly approached the judge a few weeks ago to offer unsolicited advice on the case.
“I saw him in the corner. [at the courthouse]”I told my client, ‘I have to go,’ and I walked over and we started talking. … I wanted him to know what I was thinking and why I was thinking that … I really want him to make the right decision,” Bailey told NBC New York.
Bailey later added that “the words Donald Trump” never came up during the conversation, but when asked if it was clear they were discussing Trump, he said, “Well, we obviously weren’t talking about the Mets.”
Following the conversation, Trump’s lawyers asked Engoron to recuse himself from the case, arguing that the judge had improperly discussed the matter with outside parties.
Judge Engoron has not yet ruled on the case, but a court spokesman said at the time that the judge’s decision in the Trump case was “his own, carefully considered and in no way influenced by Bailey.”
Bailey previously told The Hill that his comments on NBC New York were “off the record” and that he had only discussed with the judge the summary judgment Judge Engoron granted in September that found Trump and his co-defendants liable for fraud.
Engoron instructed Bailey to hand over the documents to Trump’s lawyers within a week.
