Judges study how to handle Trump in court

Donald Trump change. Judges do.

Twoweeksago,anewyork judge, Arthur Engoron, permitted Trump to personally deliver a closing argument in his civil fraud trial as long as he stuck to the facts and avoided a courtroom “campaign speech.” Trump bulldozed through the restrictions, repeated his familiar claim of a “political witch hunt” and assailed the judge to his face.

Then last week, after a lawyer down the street at the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial complained that Trump was grumbling “con job” and “witch hunt” loud enough for jurors to hear, Judge Lewis Kaplan sternly warned him that, although he had the right to be present, “that right can be forfeited — and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive.”

Carroll’s lawyers did not find reason to complain again.

The judges’ different approaches to the tempestuous storm that entered their courtrooms — and the different results — could offer lessons beyond the two New York cases. They may provide guidance for the judges set to oversee Trump’s four potential criminal trials, who will want to keep the 45th president from transforming his legal proceedings into political spectacles.

“The thing you’ve got to do primarily is set rules and enforce them,” said John S. Martin Jr., a former U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan. “I think if the judge is toughanddoesn’tbackdown, Trump will back down.”

Trump, 77, often finds himself in courtrooms these days, alternating those appearances with campaign stops — and using both for political purposes. Tuesday, doesn’t after attending jury selection in Carroll’s case, he flew to New Hampshire to begin campaigning. He then returned to court Wednesday, when she testified, before heading back to New Hampshire.

Judges regularly confront defendants who are powerful public figures, like politicians or CEOS, who are used to dominating a room.

But judges do not easily surrender their authority. Typically, threats of financial sanctions, contempt or jail sentences calm the most unruly of disrupters.

What has made Trump’s appearances challenging is that he may be making the calculation that disobeying a judge or perhaps even losing a legal argument could be politically advantageous. In Carroll’s defamation trial, Trump seemed almost to be goading Kaplan into throwing him out of the courtroom.

After his two confrontations with the judges, Trump held news conferences in front of cheering supporters in his building at 40 Wall St. He repeated his themes of personal persecution. He called the state attorney general, Letitia James, who had sued him in the civil fraud case, “deranged” and “a political hack.” A week later, he labeled Kaplan “a Trump-hating guy,” and brushed aside Carroll’s claims. “I, frankly, am the one that suffered damages,” he said.

Both of Trump’s Manhattan trials are still pending. There is no jury in James’ civil fraud case in New York Supreme Court; Engoron’s ruling on whether Trump and his company are liable for a $370 million penalty being sought by the state is expected toward the end of this month.

Carroll’s defamation trial is being heard by a nineperson jury in U.S. District Court, with Kaplan overseeing the proceedings. The only issue is how much money, if any, Trump must pay Carroll, 80, for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually abusing her decades before, and for his persistent attacks in statements and social media. Testimony is expectedtocontinuethroughat least today, when Trump has indicated he might testify.

Kaplan, 79, was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994. He is known for his command of the courtroom and, at times, his impatience with lawyers who seem to be unprepared. Hehaspresidedovertrialsinvolving such boldface-name defendantsassambankmanfried, the tousle-haired cryptocurrency mogul convicted in November, and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-inlaw and adviser to Osama bin Laden whom the judge sentenced to life in 2014.

In the state court, Engoron, 74, also has long experience. A former cabdriver and aspiring musician, he makes frequent jokes from the bench and maintains a cordiality with lawyers and witnesses alike.

He is a character outside the courtroom too: He submitted a story to The Times about approaching singer Art Garfunkel, informing him “My name’s Art, too.”

But Trump and his lawyers have appeared to test Engoron’s good humor as the judge seeks to determine whether the former president is liable for violating state laws by inflating his net worth, as James, the attorney general, has argued.

When one of Trump’s lawyers, Christopher Kise, said that the former president wanted to speak during closing arguments this month, Engoron said he would permit that as long as Trump agreed to the conditions that bind any lawyer: to stick to the facts and the law. The former president did not agree to do so.

The New York Times