Trump recently lost in an effort to move the sweeping civil lawsuit alleging fraud at his business away from New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who has previously held Trump in contempt amid the underlying investigation led by New York state Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump singled out Engoron — and James — in a rant on his alternative social media site Truth Social this Friday. Although Elon Musk, who is now at the helm at Twitter, has spoken of bringing the former president back to the short-form social media site, that hasn’t happened — yet. Trump, it’s worth noting, has specifically named Paul Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s husband) in some of his public rants, and this week, an apparently Trump-aligned attacker broke into a California residence of the Pelosis and attacked Paul with a hammer, looking for Nancy. As also proven by the Capitol riot, Trump’s public comments can directly lead to targeted, real-world violence — and he’s still adding new individuals to the list of his stated political enemies. At Dominion Voting Systems, a tech firm that somehow became a fixture in pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, staff are still under threat through means like menacing, detailed calls to a personal cellphone.
Trump has also specifically named Dominion in some of his deceptive rants. As for Engoron and James, he said the following on Friday: “The only person who may be worse than weak on violent crime A.G. Letitia “Peekaboo” James, is the Judge we have on her ridiculous & highly partisan case against me & my family. His name is Arthur Engoron, & he is a vicious, biased, and mean “rubber stamp” for the Communist takeover of the great & prosperous American company that I have built over a long period of years. He was appointed by my worst enemies. Case was to go to a new Judge, but he demands to keep it. I have no jury or Civil Rights!” It’s laughably disconnected from reality for Trump to characterize something that’s happening or could happen as a “Communist takeover” of his family business. James, whose case centers on allegedly vastly deceptive statements of valuation for dozens of assets, is seeking to block Trump and his three most prominent adult children from running businesses in New York, in addition to forcing the return of $250 million she tied to the false valuations.
