Former US President Donald Trump was in the news again on Wednesday for a second violation of a gag order barring him from insulting court employees by New York Judge Arthur Angoron, who is overseeing his civil fraud trial. He was fined $10,000.
Angoron had given the order on October 3 (Tuesday) after Trump shared a photo of the judge’s top clerk with US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on social media and wrongly described her as Schumer’s “girlfriend.” ” Said.
During a break in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James regarding Trump’s business practices, the former president told reporters in a hallway, “This judge is a very partisan judge, a person who is very partisan, because of his “Is sitting with, maybe even more partisan than he is.”
Speculating that Trump was referring to his clerk, Angoron called the comments a “gross” violation of the gag order.
Trump made his statement in the aisle as his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen was giving his second day of testimony against him.
In his brief appearance on the witness stand before being sentenced, Trump informed Angoron that he had referred to “you and Cohen” in his statement.
The notion that Cohen was the “partisan” person Trump nominated was rejected by the judge, as was also expressed by Trump’s attorney Christopher Keese.
“The idea that that statement would refer to a witness makes no sense to me,” Angoron said. “Don’t do that again or it’ll be worse.”
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge President Joe Biden in the 2024 US election, walked out of the courtroom after being fined. reuters informed of.
Earlier on October 20 (Friday), after it was discovered that Trump had not removed posts criticizing the clerk, Angorone fined him $5,000 and “far more serious” penalties, including jail time, for future violations. Threatened to impose penalty.
When the gag order was first implemented, Angoron announced that comments made against his employees were “unacceptable, inappropriate, and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.”
The clerk of court sits next to the judge during the trial, which is standard practice in New York state court.
Alina Hubba, one of Trump’s lawyers, told Engoron that she saw the clerk roll her eyes during Cohen’s testimony, and that it was “completely inappropriate.”
The lawsuit relates to allegations that Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, unlawfully manipulated property values and his net worth to defraud lenders and insurers. This case could break Trump’s business empire.
Cohen’s two-day testimony was his first face-to-face meeting with Trump in five years. Cohen testified Tuesday that Trump “arbitrarily” inflated the value of real estate properties to gain favorable insurance premiums.
Since breaking ties and becoming one of Trump’s staunchest critics, Cohen has written two books and created a political podcast.
