On Thursday, a state appeals court judge temporarily removed a gag order that banned Donald Trump from commenting about the judge handling the former president’s continuing $250 million civil fraud lawsuit.
Within hours of the verdict, Trump used the additional latitude by disparaging the trial judge’s chief legal clerk on social media.
“Considering the constitutional and statutory rights at issue, an interim stay is granted,” Appellate Division, First Department Associate Justice David Friedman stated in a short ruling. Friedman’s judgment also halted a gag order that prohibited the trial counsel from discussing “confidential communications” between the trial judge, Justice Arthur Engoron, and his staff.
Engoron issued a first gag order against Trump early in the civil fraud trial after Trump posted a derogatory social media remark picturing the judge’s legal clerk, Allison Greenfield, who sits opposite the judge on the bench. Engoron ruled Trump had breached the gag order twice and fined him a total of $15,000.
After the original gag order was imposed, Trump’s attorneys began regularly complaining about Greenfield, accusing her of “eye rolls and constant whispering” and claiming that her practice of providing notes to Engoron during hearings indicated that she was unlawfully influencing his judgments.
Engoron subsequently issued a second gag order, forbidding any attorneys involved in the trial “from making any public statements, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me.”
On Thursday evening, less than four hours after Friedman’s decision, Trump openly lashed out at Greenfield and Engoron on social media. “His Ridiculous and Unconstitutional Gag Order, not allowing me to defend myself against him and his politically biased and out of control Trump Hating Clerk, who is sinking him and his Court to new levels of LOW, is a disgrace,” Trump said in a statement.
Friedman’s decision came after Trump’s attorneys filed a lawsuit against Engoron on Wednesday, claiming the gag orders violated free speech.
“This constitutional protection is at its apogee where the speech in question is core political speech, made by the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, regarding perceived partisanship and bias at a trial where he is subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and the threatened prohibition of his lawful business activities in the state,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a letter.
In response to a question regarding the complaint or Friedman’s decision to lift the gag orders, a trial court spokeswoman declined to comment.
The interim suspension of Engoron’s gag orders coincides with the imposition of a separate, more broad gag order on Trump in his criminal case in Washington, D.C. has also been suspended awaiting oral arguments before an appeals court on Monday.
Trump’s Initial Gag Order and Violations
The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial imposed a gag order on Tuesday, prohibiting Trump from making remarks about court personnel after the former president unleashed a social media attack on the judge’s chief legal clerk, which included her photo.
“This morning, one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue, and personally identifying post about a member of my staff,” Justice Arthur Engoron said, addressing Trump as he sat in the courtroom about 15 feet from the clerk, Allison Greenfield.
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron went on to say.
The judge stated that he cautioned Trump “off the record” on Monday about making such statements, but that Trump disregarded him. Engoron asked Trump to erase the message after he placed it online on Tuesday, and it swiftly vanished from Trump’s social networking site, Truth Social.
“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” he stated. “Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump posted a tweet on X claiming that Greenfield “is running this case against me.” The remark was taken from an account with less than 200 followers. Trump then connected with Greenfield’s bid for a Manhattan civil court judgeship on Instagram.
“How dishonorable! This lawsuit should be dropped right away!” Trump went on to say. He also tagged her in a photo with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, referring to her as “Schumer’s girlfriend.”
On October 20, Trump first violated the gag order. A state judge fined Donald Trump $5,000 on Friday for violating a gag order imposed by the judge earlier this month by continuing to show a social media post insulting the judge’s law clerk on his campaign website.
In addition, Justice Arthur Engoron stated that he would consider imprisoning Trump for future violations of the gag order.
And on October 25, he did it again. Donald Trump unexpectedly took the stand in his civil fraud trial on Wednesday to answer questions from the judge concerning out-of-court remarks in which Trump appeared to insult the judge’s law clerk.
Finding Trump “not credible,” the judge fined him $10,000 for breaking a gag order that prohibits Trump from insulting court officials. This is the second time the judge has penalized Trump for violating the gag order in the last week.
“As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible,” Justice Arthur Engoron stated following Trump’s testimony.
