Former president Donald Trump was fined $10,000 for once again violating a gag order that prevented him from disparaging court staff involved in his $250 million civil-fraud case.
Judge Arthur Engoron imposed the second fine Wednesday afternoon after calling Trump to the stand, where the presiding judge pressed the defendant to answer if he was commenting about a law clerk present in court during the trial.
Trump told reporters earlier in the day that Engoron is “a very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.” Engoron believed he was talking about Allison Greenfield, the law clerk beside the judge. However, Trump insisted he was referring to his former attorney and appointed “fixer” Michael Cohen, the witness testifying for the New York attorney general’s office.
The judge asked if the former president previously referred to his clerk as “partisan,” to which Trump responded “maybe” while calling her “very biased against us.”
Engoron said he found Trump’s testimony “not credible” as he levied the fine. “Don’t do it again, or it will be worse,” the judge warned. Five days earlier, the presidential hopeful was fined $5,000 for the same violation. Notably, Engoron threatened jail time when issuing the first fine.
Greenfield has proven to be a thorn in the defense’s side throughout the case. Earlier Wednesday, Trump lawyer Alina Habba requested that there be no eye-rolling or whispering coming from the bench during Cohen’s cross-examination as it’s “incredibly distracting,” Habba said. Both Engoron and Greenfield were reportedly rolling their eyes.
The gag order was put into place on October 3 after Trump was ordered to remove a Truth Social post in which he claimed the judge’s principal law clerk is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D., N.Y.) girlfriend and that she is “running this case against” him. A version of the social-media post remained on Trump’s campaign website, so he received the fine last week.
“Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member of my staff,” Engoron said. “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I won’t tolerate it.”