Judge in Trump’s Civil Fraud Trial Faces Bomb Threat at His Home // Jan. 11, 2024

Judge in Trump’s Civil Fraud Trial Faces Bomb Threat at His Home
Authorities came to the home of Justice Arthur F. Engoron on the day he was set to hear closing arguments in New York’s suit against Donald Trump. The former president had attacked him on social media.

Share full article - Jan. 11, 2024

Arthur Engoron, in a blue shirt under a black judicial robe, looks directly at the camera over a computer monitor on his bench in the New York State Supreme Court.
Justice Arthur Engoron at the New York State Supreme Court last year.Credit...Pool photo by Erin Schaff

Jonah E. Bromwich
By Jonah E. Bromwich
Jan. 11, 2024
Updated 10:01 a.m. ET
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Nassau County authorities on Thursday responded to a bomb threat at the house of the judge presiding over the civil fraud trial of Donald J. Trump.

A spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department confirmed that there was an investigation at the house of the judge, Arthur F. Engoron, who in several hours is expected to hear closing arguments in Mr. Trump’s case. Two people with knowledge of the matter said that the threat involved a bomb and that the bomb squad came to the house.

It was not clear whether the threat would delay the proceedings.

The threat came the morning after Mr. Trump again attacked Justice Engoron on Truth Social, his social media site, saying that the judge and the New York attorney general, who brought the fraud case, were trying to “screw me.” And it came just days after the police in Washington were called to the home of the federal judge overseeing Mr. Trump’s election interference case.

Mr. Trump originally planned to speak in his own defense at closing arguments Thursday. But Justice Engoron said he would have to abide by rules that apply to lawyers giving closing arguments and refrain from delivering a “campaign speech.”

A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, said that the conditions were untenable, and, after unsuccessfully requesting a delay because of his mother-in-law’s death, Mr. Trump appeared to back down from speaking.