Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New York: The judge presiding over the civil fraud trial of Donald Trump fined the former president $5,000 on Friday for a “blatant violation” of a gag order imposed this month.
The judge, Arthur Engoron, stopped short of holding Trump in contempt but warned that the former president still could face harsher punishments, even jail time, if he ran afoul of the order again.
In the trial’s opening days, Engoron had barred Trump from attacking his court staff after the former president posted a picture on social media of Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader. Trump labeled Greenfield “Schumer’s girlfriend” and said she was “running this case against me.”
A spokesperson for Schumer this month called the social media post “ridiculous, absurd and false,” adding that the senator did not know Greenfield.
Trump’s post was removed from his social media platform, Truth Social, on Oct. 3, the day Engoron imposed the gag order, but a copy of the post remained visible on his campaign website.
The post was finally removed from the website around 10 pm. Thursday, after Engoron learned of it and contacted Trump’s legal team. A lawyer for Trump, Christopher Kise, said in court Friday that the failure to remove the post sooner was “inadvertent.” He apologized on behalf of Trump.
In a new order Friday, Engoron said he had imposed only a “nominal” $5,000 fine because it was Trump’s first violation and an unintentional error, but he warned that additional infractions would merit harsher punishments.
“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions,” Engoron wrote. He said possible punishments included steeper fines, holding Trump in contempt of court and “possibly imprisoning him.”
The judge added that, “In the current overheated climate, incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already have, led to serious physical harm, and worse.”
In the gag order, Engoron had said that personal attacks on his staff were “unacceptable” and that he would “not tolerate them under any circumstances.”
He forbade any posts, emails or public remarks about his staff members, adding that serious punishments would follow were he disobeyed.
Trump himself was absent from the proceedings Friday, but he attended the trial earlier in the week, using the camera-lined hallway outside the courtroom to issue periodic statements on his legal cases and political matters.