Former President Donald Trump excoriated New York Judge Arthur Engoron as a “lunatic” and “crooked judge” during a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, ahead of the state’s primary election on Feb. 27.
The comments came one day after Engoron ordered Trump and his associates to pay roughly $364 million in penalties after a monthslong civil fraud trial.
ELECTION 2024: FOLLOW LATEST COVERAGE
In addition to the hefty fine, Engoron barred Trump from serving in top leadership in any New York companies, including the Trump Organization, for three years, according to the ruling.
“The decision yesterday in New York, you may have read about it,” Trump said, appearing onstage Saturday evening in a red Make America Great Again cap. “He’s a crooked judge. By a radical left-wing judge, who is a lawless and unconstitutional atrocity that sets fire to our laws like no one has ever seen in this country before.”
Trump also took aim at New York Attorney General Letitia James for leading the “sham case” during his remarks.
“This judge is a lunatic, and if you’ve ever watched him, and the attorney general may be worse, may be worse,” Trump continued. “You ever watch her? ‘I will get Donald Trump.’ Her campaign, ‘I will get Donald Trump. I promise I will get him.’ She knows nothing about me, nothing about me.”
During a roughly 90-minute speech, Trump slammed other prominent legal officials, including special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis, both of whom charged Trump over allegations that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump claimed Smith was “deranged” and cited his actions attempting to quicken the trial against the former president to begin months before the 2024 presidential election.
“I mean, this guy is working so hard,” Trump said. “He’s a crooked guy. Deranged Jack Smith. He’s a prosecutor. They brought him out to try and do damage. And he’s done a lot of damage to a lot of people, and he’s been overturned by the United States Supreme Court unanimously. But he always fails because he goes too far. He’s an animal.”
Smith asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday not to delay the trial as Trump’s legal team pushes for presidential immunity.
A federal appeals court rejected Trump’s case for immunity, but the former president is still attempting to halt the criminal proceedings and seeking to undo the appeals court’s decision.
In Georgia, Willis testified on Thursday at a hearing investigating whether she engaged in a conflict of interest in her case against Trump. She was questioned over an undisclosed personal relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom her office has been bankrolling for more than two years to help with the case.
The district attorney charged Trump and 18 others last year in a sweeping racketeering indictment related to the 2020 election in Georgia. But the case was derailed after co-defendant Mike Roman accused Willis of financially benefiting from cruises, vacations, and day trips she went on with Wade and called for her disqualification from the case.
The former president mocked the district attorney during the rally.
“I think she said nine trips,” Trump said. “‘Every time I took a trip with my lover, I paid him in cash.’ Where the hell did you get the cash, you know? What a lot of bulls***.”
The rally on Saturday comes on the first day of early voting in Michigan, a crucial swing state that Trump likely will need to win in November if he is to defeat President Joe Biden.
Trump last appeared in Michigan five months ago, when he skipped the second GOP primary debate to speak to striking United Auto Workers outside Detroit. Since then, UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union’s endorsement of Biden for president.
Yet, in an effort to win the union vote in November, Trump slammed Biden’s efforts on electric vehicles.
“They want to make trucks all-electric,” Trump said. “The problem is they don’t go far either. They want to make our army tanks, you know, the beautiful army tanks. They want to make them into all-electric.
“Crooked Joe has ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing with his insane electric vehicle mandate,” Trump continued. “Do the auto workers here, of which we have a lot, do you agree with that?”
The former president then invited an attendee onstage.
“We got your back,” said the man, who wore a red ‘Autoworkers for Trump’ T-shirt and a red Trump cap. “The autoworkers are going to support this guy like we did in ’16, ’20. We’re gonna do it again in ’24.”
Biden’s reelection campaign quickly responded to Trump’s comments in a statement as he was speaking.
“All Donald Trump knows how to do is lose — just like he had America losing the electric vehicle race to China when he was President,” spokesman Seth Schuster said. “Instead of working to keep these jobs here in America in states like Michigan, Trump broke his promise, let Michigan factories shutter as thousands of good-paying jobs went overseas as the ultra wealthy and big corporations lined their pockets.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Schuster then went out to praise Biden as a winner and a union-supporting leader.
“President Biden is keeping the United States at the forefront of car manufacturing by investing in the future to ensure good-paying union auto jobs end up in America, not halfway around the world — because unlike Trump, Joe Biden is a winner,” Schuster said.
Ashley Oliver and Kaelan Deese contributed to this story.
