Trump gag order reinstated in New York civil fraud trial
by Ella Lee - 11/30/23 11:24 AM ET
A gag order barring former President Trump and his counsel from speaking about the staff of the New York judge overseeing his ongoing business fraud trial was reinstated Thursday by an appeals court.
In a terse decision, an appeals panel denied Trump’s request to lift the order hampering his attacks on the clerk. Trump’s counsel argued in their request to eliminate the gag order that Judge Arthur Engoron’s enforcement of it “casts serious doubt” on his ability to serve as an “impartial finder of fact” overseeing Trump’s case.
The gag order stemmed from an online attack Trump made on Engoron’s principal law clerk, who has become an unwitting main character in the fraud trial.
In October, a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform falsely derided the clerk as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) “girlfriend” and included personally identifying information about her. A Schumer spokesperson called the post “ridiculous, absurd, and false” in a statement to The Hill at the time.
Trump and his lawyers claim the clerk acts as a “co-judge” in the case, and they have criticized her for passing notes and whispering with the judge during the trial. The former president racked up $15,000 in fines for various violations of the order — and, the order was expanded to include remarks about the clerk by his counsel — before his legal team appealed it.
DEVELOPING
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4335413-trump-gag-order-reinstated-in-new-york-civil-fraud-trial/
