New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over Donald Trump‘s business fraud case, is facing questions after an attorney claimed that he provided unsolicited advice to the judge before a ruling was issued in the former president’s suit.
The attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, is a real estate lawyer based in Manhattan who had his law license revoked for four months in 2019 for inappropriate behavior. WNBC reported Wednesday that Bailey alleged during a previous interview with the network that he spoke to Engoron three weeks before the judge’s ruling in Trump’s fraud case, where the former president was found liable for misleading lenders and insurers to obtain better financial terms.
Trump was ordered by Engoron to pay $454 million in damages. He has continued to deny the accusations against him.
Bailey told WNBC during an interview on February 16, the day that Engoron’s decision was issued, that he “had the ability to speak to [Engoron] three weeks ago,” adding, “I saw him in the corner…And I walked over and we started talking…I wanted him to know what I think and why…I really want him to get it right.”
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Sources familiar with the matter told WNBC that an investigation has been launched by New York’s judicial oversight body into the alleged interaction between Engoron and Bailey. Commission Administrator Robert H. Tembeckjian told Newsweek on Thursday that the “Commission on Judicial Conduct is constrained by a strict confidentiality statute and has no comment on this matter.”
“These serious allegations of a blatant breach of the judicial conduct code, if true, call into question the integrity of the entire case and further undermine public confidence in a New York legal system already the subject of international ridicule,” Christopher Kise, Trump’s attorney, told Newsweek via email.
“Moreover, if true, there is simply no reason to believe this was an isolated incident,” Kise added. “Any judge willing to engage in this sort of exchange and willing to simply disregard clear rules of conduct would likely have done so repeatedly over the long course of the case.”
A court spokesperson told WNBC that Engoron denied any accusations of improper conversations with Bailey and said that his ruling in Trump was “wholly uninfluenced.”
“No ex parte conversation concerning this matter occurred between Justice Engoron and Mr. Bailey or any other person,” said Al Baker, a spokesperson for the New York State’s Office of Court Administration. “The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual.”
Newsweek reached out to Engoron by email, as well as the Public Information Office for the New York State Court System, for additional comment.
Bailey has occasionally weighed in on Trump’s civil trial but never had direct involvement in the case. He also told WNBC in a second on-camera interview that he did not believe Engoron did anything wrong by speaking with him.
“We didn’t even mention the word Donald Trump,” Bailey told the network. However, when asked by WNBC if he thought Engoron thought the alleged conversation was about the former president’s case, Bailey responded, “Well, obviously we weren’t talking about the Mets.”
Newsweek also reached out to Bailey via email for additional comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.