Judge Issues Gagging Order Against Donald Trump After Comments About Court Clerk

Donald Trump has been given a limited gag order by the judge following remarks against the court clerk during his civil business fraud trial.

The directive, which is applicable to all parties involved in the case and only deals with verbal abuse of court personnel, was given by Judge Arthur Engoron. It happened after Trump published a negative social media post against Allison Greenfield, the chief law clerk for Judge Engoron.

A defendant in the case, according to Judge Engoron, “posted to a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff.” However, Judge Engoron did not name the defendant.

Personal attacks on members of his court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and not tolerated, he continued.

The post had already been removed by Trump. According to Judge Engoron, he ordered its removal. The article featured a picture of Ms. Greenfield and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic majority leader, at a campaign event.

The case and trial have frequently been portrayed as a political attack by Letitia James, the Democratic attorney general of New York, by the Republican front-runner for the presidency in 2024.

On Monday, Trump made more remarks about the clerk, claiming that she “should not be allowed to be in his ear on every single question” and that she “hates Trump.”

The gag order was issued after Trump and attorneys for both sides often entered the courtroom during a lunch break behind closed doors.

In an effort to strengthen the state’s case that the former US president and others at his company had complete control over the creation of the false and misleading financial statements at the center of the lawsuit against them, Ms. James’s attorney cross-examined an accountant on the second day that Trump was present at the trial.

And Judge Engoron clarified a remark that Trump had hailed as a significant triumph.

The judge had hinted on Monday that certain data related to Trump’s 2011 financial statement would be out of the purview of the case filed by Ms. James, who claims that Trump and his company routinely misled about Trump’s wealth in financial statements sent to banks, insurers, and others.

The pertinent statute of limitations prohibits claims based on conduct prior to a date in 2014, and Trump’s legal team contended that the deadline effectively ends the majority of the case.

Judge Engoron stated on Tuesday that “statutes of limitations bar claims, not evidence” and that he is inclined to allow both sides some latitude to link earlier evidence to claims in the complaint at this early stage of the trial.

He emphasized that this trial was not an occasion to relitigate what he had already determined. Last Monday, he issued a decision declaring that the statute of limitations applied to each and every claim.