'I will not grant': Judge trades barbs with Trump lawyer in all-caps email

Judge Arthur Engoron — who is overseeing former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial — recently slammed the door on the ex-president's requests to deliver closing remarks in court, and didn't hesitate to use all caps in an email to his attorneys.

According to a Wednesday report in the Daily Beast, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise had been corresponding with Engoron via email in an attempt to get the judge to relent in the limitations he imposed on what his client and couldn't say in potential closing remarks. Engoron insisted that Trump was free to "comment on the evidence presented, on the relevant law, and on how the latter applies to the former to justify the result sought," but that he was prohibited from using the opportunity "to testify, to introduce new evidence, to make a campaign speech, or to comment on irrelevant matters."

"That is very unfair, your Honor," Kise responded. "You are not allowing President Trump, who has been wrongfully demeaned and belittled by an out of control, politically motivated Attorney General, to speak about the things that must be spoken about."

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The back-and-forth with Kise apparently frustrated Engoron, who responded, "I won’t debate this yet again. Take it or leave it. Now or never. You have until noon, seven minutes from now. I WILL NOT GRANT ANY FURTHER EXTENSIONS."

When Engoron didn't get a response from Kise, he sent a subsequent email, writing "Not having heard from you by the third extended deadline (noon today), I assume that Mr. Trump will not agree to the reasonable, lawful limits I have imposed as a precondition to giving a closing statement above and beyond those given by his attorneys, and that, therefore, he will not be speaking in court tomorrow."

Discussion about closing arguments suggests that the civil fraud trial may come to an end this month after proceedings began ion October of 2023. In a September pre-trial ruling, Engoron found that the former president had submitted falsified financial statements to state regulators artificially inflating the value of the Trump Organization's real estate portfolio in order to obtain preferential tax and insurance rates. A New York appeals court upheld that ruling in December.

The only remaining question in the trial is whether Trump will be forced to pay the $250 million in damages New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking, and whether the former president will be permanently banned from holding an officer position in any New York-based business in the future.

READ MORE: NY appeals court upholds Judge Engoron's ruling that Trump committed 'widespread fraud'