'A Tragic Day for the Rule of Law': Appeals Court Clamps Down on Trump by Reinstating Gag Order
A gag order against former President Donald Trump has been put back in place by a New York appeals court.
The order was imposed by state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron in October as part of Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, according to NBC News.
Engoron later fined Trump for violating the gag order after Trump issued a social media post calling Allison Greenfield, Engoron’s clerk, the girlfriend of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Trump appealed the order, which led to a pause in its enforcement. The Thursday order means Trump is again banned from saying anything about court staff while the court considers the full appeal.
“I intend to enforce the gag orders rigorously and vigorously and I want to make sure counsel informs their clients of the fact that the stay was vacated,” Engoron told Trump’s lawyers in court.
“It’s a tragic day for the rule of law, but we are aware,” Trump attorney Chris Kise told Engoron.
“It is what it is,” Engoron said in reply, according to CNN.
Kise added in a statement that it was “hard to imagine a more unfair process and hard to believe this is happening in America,” adding that Trump “may not even comment on why he thinks he cannot get a fair trial.”
Trump and his attorneys are banned from talking about court staff, but Trump remains free to criticize Engoron, as well as state Attorney General Letitia James.
He did so Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, writing, “Judge Engoron and Letitia James should be impeached and removed from office for fraudulently reducing my Asset Values, by many times, in order to hurt and demean me.”
“It is a political Witch Hunt, and a great embarrassment to New York State. REMOVE THEM AND DISMISS THIS RIDICULOUS, NO VICTIM, NO JURY, CASE!”
Court officials who sought the gag order said it was needed to protect staff from threats and harassment.
Charles Hollon, an officer with the state Department of Public Safety, said in a court filing that Engoron and Greenfield had received “credible” threats because of Trump’s comments.
The clerk’s “personal information, including her personal cell phone number and personal email addresses also have been compromised resulting in daily doxing. She has been subjected to, on a daily basis, harassing, disparaging comments and antisemitic tropes,” Holton’s filing said.
Trump’s attorneys had argued that Trump was not responsible for the actions of others.
“The Constitution does not permit Justice Engoron to curtail [Trump’s] speech simply because people may react to things that President Trump says,” they wrote.
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