Mary Altaffer/Pool via Reuters
A week into his bank fraud trial, Donald Trump late Thursday night dropped his oddly aggressive lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case—a move that had been seen as a last-minute scramble to avert a potential unraveling of the tycoon’s real estate empire.
But that happened anyway when Justice Arthur F. Engoron concluded the former president was a serial liar who faked the size of his buildings and value of his properties for years, ordering the family business’ licenses to be revoked.
Now that the judge is overseeing the next three months of scheduled trial to determine whether the Trump family should be punished and forced to pay $250 million or more, defense lawyers made a court filing that indicates “the Article 78 proceeding is dismissed with prejudice.”