Shocking video captures a judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s New York real estate trial, admitting that he can change jury verdicts when they “get it wrong.”
In a video circulating on social media, New York District Judge Arthur Engoron tells the audience at a university that he has seen juries frequently reach conclusions he doesn’t find reasonable.
Judge overseeing Trump civil case in NYC:
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 3, 2023
“Juries get it wrong a lot…I have a tool – I can deal with that…I can say that there is no possible way that a reasonable jury would have reached that conclusion.” pic.twitter.com/iehPtIrcsF
“I’ve had situations where I’m like, oh my heaven’s sake, how could they have thought that? Well, I have a tool that I can deal with that. It’s called judgment notwithstanding the verdict. I can say there is no possible way that a reasonable jury would have reached that conclusion,” Engoron explained.
He then said that he has a “tool” for dealing with juries by raising a sartorial point of objection.
“I’m an impartial referee, but it’s hard to factor out my own emotions,” Engoron continued. “What if the defendant was wearing a red sweater instead of a blue sweater?”
Engoron drew criticism when he mugged for television cameras and shrugged in front of the courtroom audience during the first of Trump’s real estate appeal trial. Some claimed that the judge’s gesture indicated that he already saw the result as inevitable.
The former president and his legal team are attempting to get Engoron’s verdict overturned, which concluded that Mar-a-Lago is only worth $18 million, or around the same as other homes that are a fraction of its size.
This comes as Trump has been charged for the fourth time this year for his alleged involvement in attempting to overturn 2020 presidential election results, as well as the January 6 Captiol riot.
He has since invoked the Presidential Records Act and drawn comparisons between his treatment and that of President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.
Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis was in charge of prosecuting Trump and his co-defendants. She requested in a petition recently that the trial start on October 23. The 45th president is accused of other crimes in New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C.; a judge will eventually decide when his trial in Georgia will start.
