New York judge expands gag order to include Trump attorneys

Katelynn Richardson
Daily Caller
Fri, 03 Nov 2023 04:27 UTC

© Mike Segar/AP

Judge Arthur F. Engoron and Allison Greenfield • New York Supreme Court • Oct. 24, 2023

The New York judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial expanded his gag order Friday to include Trump's attorneys.

Judge Arthur Engoron issued an order Friday barring Trump's attorneys from making "any public comments about court staff" referring to "confidential communications" between him and his staff. Engoron said the attorneys on Trump's legal team — Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert and Alina Habba — have made "on the record, repeated, inappropriate remarks" about his law clerk "falsely accusing her of bias against them and of improperly influencing the ongoing bench trial."

Engoron first issued a gag order against Trump in early October after he made a post on Truth Social referencing Allison Greenfield, Engoron's clerk, as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's "girlfriend."

Engoron wrote in the order Friday:

"As I have stated, seemingly to no avail, my law clerks are public servants who are performing their jobs in the manner in which I request. This includes providing legal authority and opinions, as well as responding to questions I pose to them."

Trump has already been hit twice with fines of $5,000 and $10,000 for violating his gag order. The first was for failing to remove the Truth Social post from his campaign website for 17 days, and the second was a result of comments he made to reporters outside the courtroom, calling the person sitting beside Engoron "very partisan."

Engoron continued in the order Friday:

"Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages. The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm."

Comment: It's unlikely Trump and his legal team are going to just sit there without a whimper.

While Trump's attorneys have zeroed in on note passing and whispers between Greenfield and Engoron, donations Greenfield made to Democrats in 2022 and 2023, which appear to have exceeded a $500 ethics code limit, became the topic of a lengthy argument Friday morning, according to Politico.

The attorneys said the donations further underscored Greenfield's bias, but they also pointed to a report in Breitbart News about a complaint a Wisconsin man allegedly filed to Engoron about the donations and warned they would consider seeking a mistrial because of Engoron's alleged awareness of them.

Engoron shot back that it was "absolutely untrue" that he had ever seen the complaint and said he would let "everybody in the room decide what they think of Breitbart."

Trump himself has also accused Greenfield of bias, which led to the initial limited gag order barring parties from referencing Engoron's staff.