How Donald Trump Rails Against Judges—And How They Push Back

Faced with four different indictments this year, Donald Trump has reacted by condemning the investigations against him, calling them part of a political "witch hunt" and an "election interference" as he's currently the front runner for the Republican primary.

The judges overseeing his cases have been among the targets of the former president's anger, together with Joe Biden, his administration, and all Democrats, with Trump wrongly accusing the president of ordering the probes against him.

Earlier this week, the Daily Beast reported that Trump has sued Arthur F. Engoron, the judge overseeing the civil case in New York City which was spurned by the state's Attorney General Letitia James. James accused the former president, his business, and members of his family of fraudulently inflating the value of their assets by billions of dollars.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in this as in all other cases involving him.

While the lawsuit filed by Trump's lawyers against James and Engoron earlier this week hasn't been made public, the newspaper reported that it accuses the judge of ignoring an earlier appeals court decision which they believe should limit the New York case against him.

The trial—which is scheduled to begin on October 2—has been paused as the lawsuit is considered, as Trump's lawyers requested.

It's not the first time that Trump and his lawyers directly challenged one of the judges overseeing the former president's cases, to little or no avail.

The former president has been calling for Judge Tanya Chutkan—who's been assigned to preside over his federal election interference case—to recuse herself, saying that she has previously called for his prosecution and arrest and thus shown her bias against him.

Prosecutors in the case refused Trump's request to disqualify Chutkan, saying that "the defendant has failed to identify anything approaching the clear and convincing evidence necessary to overcome the presumption of impartiality. Instead, he has relied on suggestion and innuendo to insinuate something sinister in the court simply doing its job."

In short, the former president's lawyers provided no actual evidence of the judge's alleged biases against Trump.

Trump's lawyers have also tried to disqualify Justice Juan M. Merchan, who's overseeing the Manhattan case in which the former president stands accused of making a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

During a Mar-a-Lago address in April, Trump said of Merchan: "I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign, and a lot of it." His lawyers argued for his recusal on the basis that the judge had donated $15 to Biden during his 2020 campaign and that his daughter helps run a digital market agency that works with Democrats.

But Merchan—who did not recuse himself—strongly rejected Trump and his lawyers' argument, saying that his impartiality could not "reasonably be questioned" based on small "political contributions made more than two years ago," or his daughter's work.

Trump and his lawyers' attempts to disqualify the judges overseeing his cases have so far got the former president two protective orders which forbid him from discussing evidence and witnesses in the cases involving him.

One came from Chutkan after Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social a message that read: "If you go after me, I'm coming after you!."

Chutkan said he was taking the measure to prevent Trump from intimidating witnesses and potential jurors. His lawyers later said he was referring to his political opponents and not to the cases against him.

Another came from Judge Aileen Cannon, who has barred Trump from public comments about classified evidence in the case related to the alleged mishandling of national security documents after he left the White House.

In June, the former president was indicted on a total of 37 counts in relation to this case, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations.