New York:
The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has imposed a limited silence order on the former president after he insulted a law clerk in a social media post on Tuesday.
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable,” Judge Arthur Engoron said as Trump sat at the defense table during the second day of his high-profile trial in a Manhattan courtroom.
“Consider this statement a gag order prohibiting all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about my staff,” Engoron said.
The judge did not mention Trump by name but referred to a “disparaging social media post” by a defendant in the case, which accuses Trump and his two eldest sons of inflating the value of Trump’s real estate holdings. Organization.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform a photo of one of the judge’s law clerks, calling her the “girlfriend” of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“This case must be dismissed immediately,” Trump said.
The message was later deleted.
Trump, 77, is not required to be in court for the civil fraud trial, but he chose to attend for a second day on Tuesday, again taking advantage of media attention to push back claims that he is a victim of a political witch hunt.
He again lashed out at New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the case against him, calling her “highly corrupt” and “highly incompetent.”
Trump has also repeatedly personally attacked the judge, calling him a “rogue, out of control, Trump-hating judge,” but Engoron’s verbal silence order only ordered a halt to attacks on his court staff.
The former president told reporters as he left court on Tuesday that he would return on Wednesday and testify “at the appropriate time.”
– Multiple legal battles –
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing legal battles on multiple fronts. The civil fraud case could result in him being banned from doing business in New York.
The attorney general has charged Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr. and other executives accused of vastly inflating the value of their assets to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
Trump faces no jail time during the civil trial, but James is seeking $250 million in fines and the removal of the former president and his sons from the management of the family empire.
Trump has denounced the corporate fraud allegations as a “sham” designed to torpedo his bid to retake the White House next year.
He has particularly mocked the $18 million valuation of his palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, claiming the property is worth $1.5 billion.
The civil lawsuit also involves several other Trump Organization properties, such as Trump Tower and the 40 Wall Street building in New York, as well as golf courses.
Engoron ruled last week that Trump, his sons and other Trump Organization executives lied for years to tax collectors, lenders and insurers in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021 .
As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organization to operate some of its properties in New York and asked the parties to propose receivers to manage the dissolution of the companies in question.
The twice-impeached former president also faces federal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.
Trump has also been charged with racketeering in Georgia for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)