Judge: Trump Org defendants’ ‘complete’ lack of contrition ‘borders on pathological’

A New York judge called out former President Trump and other Trump Organization executives Friday for their lack of remorse in a civil fraud case over the company’s business dealings.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million in penalties following a months-long trial last year. Toward the end of his 92-page ruling, Engoron cited the defendants’ refusal to admit to any error.

“The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) first declared, ‘To err is human, to forgive is divine.’ Defendants apparently are of a different mind,” Engoron wrote.

“After some four years of investigation and litigation, the only error (‘inadvertent,’ of course) that they acknowledge is the tripling of the size of the Trump Tower Penthouse, which cannot be gainsaid. Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” he continued in his decision. “They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again.”

“This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff,” he wrote. “Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”

Engoron found Trump, the Trump Organization and several top executives, including his adult sons, liable for fraud before the trial began. The verdict is at the sole discretion of the judge because there was no jury at the trial. 

The fine is some $16 million less than the $370 million New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office asked the judge to force Trump to pay. It also blocks the former president from participating in New York business for three years.   

Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were ordered to pay more than $4 million each, and were both barred from serving as officers or directors of any New York corporation or other legal entity for two years.

The former president repeatedly attacked Engoron as political and biased throughout the trial. He levied similar personal attacks against James, who is Black, calling her a racist and a partisan who was out to get him.

Trump’s attacks extended beyond Engoron and James at times, prompting Engoron to put in place a gag order that barred the former president and his attorneys from making remarks about court staff.