Trump gag order in NY fraud case temporarily lifted by appeals court
An appeals court has temporarily lifted the gag order barring former
President Trump and his attorneys from talking about the trial judge’s staff in his New York civil fraud case.
The order follows an emergency lawsuit filed by Trump’s legal team Wednesday against Judge
Arthur Engoron, whose enforcement of the gag orders they claim “casts serious doubt” on his ability to serve as an “impartial finder of fact” overseeing Trump’s case.
“His extraordinary expansion of that order both limits and chills advocacy on Petitioners’ behalf and precludes counsel on pain of contempt from making a record of misconduct and bias in a public courtroom,” Trump’s counsel wrote in the emergency suit.
The former president’s legal team requested an interim stay of Engoron’s gag order — and the sanctions that resulted from his violation, which the New York appellate division granted after oral arguments Thursday.
The gag orders stemmed from an online attack Trump made on Engoron’s principal law clerk, who has become an unwitting main character in the fraud trial.
Trump’s Truth Social account 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.
Trump and his counsel have repeatedly toed the line regarding their comments about the clerk, claiming that she acts as a “co-judge” in the case and criticizing her for passing notes and whispering with the judge. The judge has fined Trump $15,000 for various violations.
At one point, Engoron unexpectedly
called Trump to the witness stand to explain himself for a comment the judge perceived to be about the clerk.
The appeals judge raised concerns over restricting Trump’s free speech in his decision to stay the gag order, meaning Trump can now comment freely about Engoron’s staff while the appeals process plays out.
Trump’s legal team Wednesday filed a mistrial motion on similar grounds, claiming Engoron and his clerk’s purported bias against Trump had “tainted” the case.
“The principal law clerk is given unprecedented and inappropriate latitude,” Trump’s counsel wrote in their mistrial motion.
A spokesperson for the New York attorney general’s office called the mistrial motion an effort to “dismiss the truth and the facts, but the numbers and evidence don’t lie.” The Hill has requested further comment from the attorney general’s office on the appeals court’s decision to lift the gag order.
An appeals court has temporarily lifted the gag order barring former President Trump and his attorneys from talking about the trial judge’s staff in his New York civil fraud case. The order f…
thehill.com