Trump's mistrial motion smacked down by New York judge: 'Utterly without merit'

New York Judge Arthur Engoron has denied former President Donald Trump's motion for a mistrial in the civil fraud case against him and his two adult sons.

In a filing released on Friday, Engoron declared the motion "utterly without merit" and refused to even schedule a hearing to discuss it, dismissing it out of hand.

In his motion, Trump had claimed that Engoron was too biased to decide the trial fairly. He has previously attacked Engoron's court clerk and suggested that she was pulling the strings in the trial against him.

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Engoron had placed the former president under a gag order restricting him from attacking officers of the court, and was fined twice for violating it. However, this week, an appeals court lifted that gag order pending review.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the fraud lawsuit, accuses Trump and his two adult sons of systematically lying about the value of the Trump Organization's assets in order to get more favorable loan and tax arrangements.

She is seeking hundreds of millions in damages and the dissolution of the Trump Organization entities in New York. Engoron has already ruled for James in summary judgment, leaving the remainder of the trial about determining damages.