Judge Engoron's Courtroom Joke Turns Heads

Judge Arthur Engoron turned some heads Thursday at the conclusion of former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York City.

The months-long trial into accusations that tore into the former president's family business came to its end, with both sides presenting their closing arguments before Engoron.

The lawsuit was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who claims that Trump inflated his net value to deceive insurers and banks to receive better loan deals. James' original lawsuit, which was seeking $250 million but has since been bumped up to $370 million in penalties, was already partially agreed to by Engoron, who found that Trump misstated his value on financial documents.

As defendants, prosecutors and photographers filed into the courtroom Thursday morning, the judge made a joke that was loud enough to be picked up by some journalists reporting from inside the courtroom.

According to Lisa Rubin, a legal analyst for MSNBC, Engoron quipped as a group of pool photographers were admitted into the room: "Lining them up? Like they're going to be shot or something?"

The Messenger senior legal correspondent Adam Klasfeld recorded Engoron's joke while live reporting about the hearing on X, formerly Twitter.

"It's an odd joke from someone who himself has been the subject of serious threats, as recently as this morning, and whose principal law clerk, still seated to his immediate right, has suffered even worse, according to a public affidavit from a [New York state] public safety officer," Rubin noted in a following post to X.

Newsweek reached out to the Office of Public Information for the New York State Unified Court System via email for comment. An email was also sent to Trump's campaign team.

Rubin was referring to the bomb threat made at Engoron's home in Nassau County, New York, on Thursday morning before proceedings began. People familiar with the matter told The New York Times that the bomb squad was sent to the judge's house to assess the threat.

Engoron has also made a point to curb any online or verbal attacks from Trump himself—the former president was hit with a limited gag order in October after sharing a post to Truth Social that attacked Engoron's principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Trump has also attacked Engoron's wife in several posts on social media, as well as the judge.

The threat to Engoron's house came after the judge said that he would not let Trump deliver his own closing remarks during Thursday's proceedings because his attorneys did not meet several extended deadlines. The former president raged about Engoron's decision on Truth Social on Wednesday evening, claiming that the "Trump hating judge" was working alongside James to "'screw me,' even though I have done nothing wrong."