- Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order on making public remarks about his staff members, after former President Donald Trump blasted the judge, his top law clerk and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the second day of the business fraud trial against Trump and his company.
- James accuses Trump, two of his adult sons, the Trump Organization and top executives of fraudulently overvaluing their real estate properties.
- Trump said that he will testify in the trial.
A judge issued a gag order Tuesday after Donald Trump attacked the judge’s law clerk on social media and in comments to reporters covering his New York business fraud trial.
“Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member of my staff,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron said on the second day of the former president’s civil trial.
Engoron said personal attacks on his staff were unacceptable and intolerable.
The judge was angered by Trump’s post earlier Tuesday on his Truth Social site that included disparaging comments about the clerk alongside a photo of her posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Trump in that post had called the clerk “Schumer’s girlfriend” and accused her of “running this case against me.”
“How disgraceful!” Trump wrote in the post, which included the clerk’s full name. “This case should be dismissed immediately!!”
Trump mentioned Schumer and the clerk again during a break in the proceedings later that day, as he claimed that the trial was “rigged” and “fraudulent.”
The clerk is seated almost directly across from Trump in court.
Trump later deleted the post.
Also on Tuesday, Trump’s presidential campaign sent out a lengthy email criticizing Engoron as a “Far-Left Democrat.”
The email, entitled “Meet Judge Arthur F. Engoron,” cited numerous stories in conservative media accusing Engoron of political bias.
Trump had already slammed New York Attorney General Letitia James as a “fraud” and called for the case to be dismissed before the trial resumed Tuesday morning.
“And she should probably be dismissed also,” he said of James, whose lawsuit is the subject of the case.
He had glared at James on the first day of the trial when he passed her walking out of the courtroom.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/trump-business-fraud-trial-former-president-blasts-new-york-ag.html
