Trump’s Company Will Be Monitored by Ex-Judge During New York Suit

Erik Larson
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- A woman who prosecuted organized crime before becoming a federal judge has been picked to serve as independent monitor of former President Donald Trump’s company while New York sues it for fraud.

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Barbara Jones, who retired from the bench in 2013, was picked for the job by Justice Arthur Engoron in New York state court, where Trump and his business were sued for allegedly inflating the value of his assets for years to rip off banks and insurers to the tune of $250 million.

Jones, now a partner at Bracewell LLP, agreed to accept the job in a phone call with Engoron on Monday, the judge said in a one-page order.

The former judge has served in court-appointed roles in several high-profile matters tied to the former president, including cases stemming from criminal probes into his longtime attorneys Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Cohen.

Lawyers for Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the suit, both included Jones on their short lists of possible monitors, which they filed with the court on Nov. 10. It was a rare sign of agreement between the parties in the highly contentious suit.

James’s press office declined to comment, while Trump attorney Alina Habba didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

James requested the appointment of a monitor as part of a sweeping preliminary injunction against the Trump Organization, which Engoron granted earlier this month. She argued that a neutral third party was needed to ensure that Trump’s company didn’t continue the alleged fraud while the state sued.

Trump failed to immediately sway an appeals court that a monitor wasn’t necessary, though the former president is still appealing the preliminary injunction and has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

Jones will be responsible for overseeing corporate submissions on Trump’s financial condition, as well as financial filings for banks and insurers, and any corporate restructuring or movement of significant assets. Under Engoron’s earlier order, Trump will now have two weeks to provide Jones a “full and accurate description of the structure and liquid and illiquid holdings and assets of the Trump Organization.”

Jones, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1995, served under Giuliani in the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and as chief assistant to then-District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. At Bracewell, Jones’s practice also includes corporate monitorships, according to a biography on the firm’s website.

In 2021, Jones was appointed by a federal judge in New York to serve as a neutral “special master” to review materials seized by the FBI from Giuliani’s apartments as part of a probe into his dealings in Ukraine. Her review was intended to protect records covered by attorney-client privilege. The former New York mayor wasn’t charged with anything, though two of his associates were. Jones didn’t play a role in any charging decisions.

Jones was also picked in 2018 to serve as a special master to review documents seized from Cohen’s home and office as part of the Justice Department’s probe into financial payments made before the 2016 election to an adult-film star who claimed she had an affair with Trump. Jones’s review included about 3.7 million documents. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other violations later in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

(Updates with details on Jones’s past work)

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