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<\/p>\n(Photo by Brendan McDermid-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Judge Arthur Engoron heard the business fraud case involving Donald Trump and his businesses. Engoron ultimately imposed a $450 million judgment against the defendants.<\/p>\n
During that trial, Trump had repeatedly disparaged court personnel, including the judge\u2019s law clerk. After the judge entered a gag order to protect the courtroom staff, Trump went outside the courtroom and told reporters that \u201ca person<\/a> who\u2019s very partisan [is] sitting alongside\u201d the judge. This appeared to again disparage the judge\u2019s clerk and thus to violate the gag order. Judge Engoron had Trump take the witness stand.<\/p>\n Trump testified that he had not in fact been referring to the judge\u2019s clerk as being a partisan, but rather was referring to Michael Cohen, Trump\u2019s former lawyer, who had been on the witness stand at the time.<\/p>\n This was obviously a lie, and the judge ultimately so ruled<\/a>: \u201cThe idea that the statement would refer to the witness doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.\u201d According to the judge, Trump\u2019s testimony, under oath, was \u201cnot credible.\u201d<\/p>\n Lying under oath. That\u2019s not good. In the 1990s, Republicans wanted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying under oath.<\/p>\n But I digress.<\/p>\n In the days leading up to January 6, 2021, President Trump urged his supporters to come to Washington, D.C., telling them that the day would be \u201cwild<\/a>.\u201d Trump gave a speech on the sixth, and the assembled crowd attacked the Capitol Building. Whether or not you agree that Trump instigated the riot, he indisputably remained silent for three hours while a mob attacked Congress. Whether Trump thought the crowd consisted of members of Antifa, or FBI informants, or simply peaceful protestors, Trump did not lift a finger or say a word to defend the Capitol Building. A simple statement would have sufficed. Perhaps: \u201cIf you by any chance are my supporters, please understand that I didn\u2019t mean this at all. You misunderstood me. I didn\u2019t mean that you should ransack the Capitol Building. Please go home.\u201d<\/p>\n But no.<\/p>\n Trump is not one to protect the United States to the best of his ability. Nor, as Judge Engoron held, is Trump one to tell the truth, even when under oath.<\/p>\n On Monday at noon, Donald J. Trump will put his hand on a bible and repeat under oath the words set forth in Article II, Section One, Clause 8 of the Constitution:<\/p>\n I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That doesn\u2019t give me a whole lot of comfort.<\/p>\n How about you?<\/p>\n Mark\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Herrmann<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The Curmudgeon\u2019s Guide to Practicing Law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strateg<\/em><\/strong><\/a>y<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>[email\u00a0protected]<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It doesn’t look good for the rule of law. The post Trump Takes The Oath Of Office appeared first on Above the Law. (Photo by Brendan McDermid-Pool\/Getty Images) Judge Arthur Engoron heard the business fraud case involving Donald Trump and his businesses. Engoron ultimately imposed a $450 million judgment against the defendants. During that trial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":100862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-1778382010-Xm8Rxk.jpeg?fit=594%2C396&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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