Yeah, The Judge Is Losing Control

Dialogue that's beginning to emerge from recent days in Trump's New York trial is giving me the impression that Judge Engoron has already backed himself into reversible territory, and he knows it. Via Forbes from last week:

Engoron’s law clerk has been a source of contention throughout the trial, after Trump made a disparaging post in the trial’s first week sharing a false rumor about the clerk and suggesting she was politically biased against him, prompting the judge to impose a gag order barring parties in the case from speaking about court staff.

The "false rumor" was news that a complaint had been filed with the New York State Bar Association against Judge Engoron's chief clerk, Allison Greenfield, for violating judicial rules preventing officers of the court from making excessive political donations.

[I]n 2022 alone, Greenfield gave $3,335 in political donations to Democrat candidates and causes in New York—more than six times the maximum allowed annually for court officials like herself to give.

Forbes continues,

The back-and-forth over the clerk resumed Friday, with Engoron saying he hoped he was clear when he instructed Trump’s lawyers to stop making improper claims about the clerk and is “worried about this.”

Kise refused to drop the issue, saying, “The entire country, if not the world, is watching this proceeding” and pointing to a Breitbart piece published Thursday, which claimed a Twitter user submitted a complaint to the New York State Bar Association that takes issue with the clerk’s purported “partisan political and Democratic activities.”

The attorney claimed he could file for a mistrial due to the alleged bias.

On Monday, Trump's attorneys continued to telegraph their intent to move for a mistrial on the basis of bias. Via CNN,

Donald Trump’s lawyers said they want to make a motion for a mistrial, getting into an extended debate with Judge Arthur Engoron about how they can raise the conduct of his clerk that’s subject to a gag order.

"We would at least need to reference the subject matter," Trump's attorney Chris Kise said.

Initially, Engoron told Trump’s lawyers they should not file such a motion that referenced his staff, saying he put the gag order in place to protect them.

"I am 1000% convinced that you don't have any right or reason to complain about my confidential communications,” Engoron said.

Other observers have reported that during this exchange, Judge Engoron admonished Kise, "Don't file that motion, Chris", addressing Trump's attorney by his first name in the courtroom, which is highly irregular and suggests the pressures building up on the judge. The CNN account continues,

Trump’s attorneys, who have complained about Engoron’s note-passing with his clerk, claim it’s a sign of the trial’s bias and have urged Engoron to reconsider.

"You can't respectfully reject it before you've seen it," Kise said. Trump attorney Alina Habba told the judge, "Obviously are going to be moving for a mistrial, that is part of the plan."

"We need to have an opportunity to be heard on those things that have not been yet heard,” Habba said.

After conferring with his clerk, Engoron changed course and said that Trump’s attorneys could file a motion, but he asked them to do it in writing.

The trial isn't being televised, so it's hard to determine how frequently Judge Engoron interacts with his clerk, but remarks from observers in the courtroom suggest it's almost constant.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Laura Loomer alleged that Judge Engoron's wife, Dawn Marie Engoron, had been making anti-Trump tweets from an account called Dawn Marie:

EXCLUSIVE:

This is one of the most damning screenshots I have archived from the Twitter account of Dawn Marie Engoron, the wife of Judge Arthur Engoron, the Leftist judge who is overseeing President Trump’s Civil Fraud trial in NYC.

On October 30, 2023, while the trial was… https://t.co/fBMt1lxMAZ pic.twitter.com/G1TRMiMR6K

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 8, 2023

Mrs Engoron has denied that the account is hers:

Newsweek was unable to verify that the account belonged to Dawn, and on Wednesday, she issued a firm denial. Dawn told Newsweek on Wednesday afternoon that the account does not belong to her.

"I do not have a Twitter account. This is not me. I have not posted any anti Trump messages," she said.

Well, after yesterday's post, we at least know that the judge is married to an individual who identifies as female with she/her pronouns, if nothing else. Beyond that,

[I]n a September 27, 2023 article published by Bollywood Safar, over a month before the recent turn of events, Dawn Marie is mentioned as an expert in the field of mental health. Not only that but her current employer’s name was cited as Brain Mind Harmony, where she has been reportedly working as a professional psychotherapist since December 2021.

As per the Bollywood Safar article, her other roles included serving as a psychodynamic psychotherapy supervisor for 3rd and 4th-year residents at the Zucker School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, and Northwell Health from July 2021.

I'm sure if Judge Engoron is married to a psychotherapist, his mind and body are indeed in perfect harmony, and he's posted the selfies to prove it.