Police respond to swatting incident at Long Island home of judge in ex- President Donald Trump trial
Authorities responded Thursday to a bomb threat at Judge Arthur Engoron's Kensington home. Credit: AP / Seth Wenig
Nassau County police responded to a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded Thursday morning at the North Shore home of the judge presiding over ex-President Donald Trump’s fraud trial in Manhattan, police said.
“It was a swatting incident at that location and the investigation is continuing,” said Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun, the department’s top spokesman.
Nassau police were contacted at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday and responded to the Kensington home of Judge Arthur Engoron, LeBrun said. Further details were not immediately available.
A spokesman for the Nassau district attorney's office referred an inquiry to the police department.
The incident happened just hours before Trump arrived at closing arguments in his New York civil fraud trial, which Engoron is presiding over. There was no delay to the court proceeding because of the bomb threat, said Al Baker, a spokesman for the state court system.
"We’ve had robust, layered security since these proceedings began," Baker said of Trump's civil trial. "We added a layer of security today out of an abundance of caution."
Swatting occurs when someone contacts law enforcement authorities, usually with their location obscured, and reports some kind of emergency or crime at the location of the target, drawing a heavy police response. A spate of high-profile people have been victims of swatting in recent weeks, including the federal judge presiding over Trump’s separate alleged election interference case, according to published reports.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Thursday said: “The Nassau County Police Department continues to investigate this morning’s threat and takes seriously any threat made to an individual. The police department continues to work with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners on all aspects of this case.”
Trump has repeatedly disparaged Engoron, who ruled last year in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that Trump and his company deceived banks and insurers by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth while securing loans and making business deals.
Engoron issued a gag order last year barring Trump from making disparaging comments about court staff after Trump posted a photo on social media of the judge's court clerk with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and baselessly called the clerk "Schumer's girlfriend." Trump's attorneys have appealed the gag order.
In a social media post Wednesday night, Trump accused Engoron of working with James "to screw me."
“At this moment the judge is not letting me make the summation because I’ll bring up things he doesn’t want to hear," Trump said Thursday morning as he walked into the courtroom, according to The Associated Press.
With Candice Ferrette
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
