https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-told-lawyers-keep-volume-143456685.html
Judge told lawyers to "keep the volume down" after Alina Habba "practically yelled" at him: reporter
Judge Arthur Engoron, the judge presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York, had to instruct attorneys to lower their voices after an outburst from Alina Habba, an attorney for the former president.
Habba became incensed about a number of perceived issues with the judge, including the fact that he is holding a bench trial rather than a jury trial. Engoron explained that he was holding a bench trial because "nobody asked for" a jury trial on Trump's legal team.
Habba also accused the judge of improperly valuing Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort at $18 million, even though Engoron in a summary judgement finding that Trump and his companies had persistently committed fraud cited a Palm Beach County official's assessment that the property was worth between $18 million and $27 million between 2011 and 2021.
Engoron rejected Habba's characterization.
"He said, 'hang on. I never said that.' And he didn't say it. His ruling that came down last week said that there have been valuations for property appraisal that put it at that" price, New York Times reporter Suzanne Craig, who was in the courtroom, recounted on MSNBC. "It doesn't mean it's worth that. And I just found that that really struck me because that's what Donald Trump and some of his lieutenants do. They say a lie and they repeat it over and over and over. And Eric Trump, the other night, was out tweeting about that valuation saying the same thing. And so the judge — there was a very heated back and forth and vocal back and forth between the two of them at the end of her remarks. And her audience was an audience of one. It was Donald Trump."
Engoron, who reportedly waited until Habba had concluded her rant to speak, then requested that the attorneys lower the volume.
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