Judge in Trump fraud case would not back down

17/2/2024 14:07

        Arthur Engoron, a cabdriver-turned-judge who found Donald Trump liable for fraud, did not hold back in accusing the former U.S. president of trying to take him for a ride.
        
        In ordering Trump and his family business to pay a $355 million penalty, Engoron displayed the wit, humor and disbelief he has often shown in more than three years overseeing the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, including a trial spanning three months.
        
        "The English poet Alexander Pope first declared, 'To err is human, to forgive is divine,'" Engoron wrote near the end of his 92-page, single-spaced decision.
        "Defendants apparently are of a different mind," the judge continued. "Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological."
        
        James sued Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and others, saying they violated state law by overstating the value of Trump's properties in order to inflate his net worth and obtain better loan and insurance terms.