MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Tuesday ridiculed Donald Trump’s attacks on Judge Arthur Engoron, the jurist who is overseeing the civil fraud case brought against the ex-president by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
During a court lunch break on the first day of the trial Monday, Trump accused Engoron of being a “Democrat operative,” “a disgrace to people that call themselves judges” and said he was “getting away with murder.”
Scarborough mocked Trump’s comments.
“I wasn’t in that part of my law school class on judge trials where the professor told you, ‘If it’s a judge trial and the judge is determining your future, then it’s best for you to insult him and call him a loser and attack him,’” the “Morning Joe” co-host said.
“It makes no sense,” he added.
Last week, Engoron ruled that Trump had committed fraud for years by overvaluing his assets to seal deals and secure bank loans. Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s companies be dissolved.
Scarborough suggested that “any other defendant in America in this position” would apologize, throw themselves “on the mercy of the court” and vow to tighten up procedures at their business.
But despite all that, Trump is “doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing,” said Scarborough.
“He’s continuing to drive his car off the cliff. He leaves his lawyers in a no-win position. And then after it’s over, he’ll probably call for the execution of the judge like he called for the execution of [newly retired former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark] Milley. It is a zero-sum game, and it’s a game he loses every time.”