Michael Cohen to testify against Trump in civil fraud trial

Judge threatens to jail Trump for defying gag order in civil fraud trial

During last week’s fraud trial proceedings Judge Arthur Engoron fined the former president $5,000 and floated the idea of jailing him for defying a partial gag order requiring him to remove a post trashing the judge’s law clerk on social media.

Engoron was livid when he revealed that Trump failed to comply with the order and raised the possibility of putting the former president in prison. Engoron said Trump had posted on his social media account “an untrue and disparaging post about my clerk” and that he “ordered him to remove the post immediately and he said he did take it down.”

He continued, “Despite this order, last night I learned the offending post was never removed from a website. This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear [that] failure to comply will result in serious sanctions.”

In his ruling levying the fine, Engoron warned Trump against violating the gag order again.

“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him,” Engoron wrote.

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Trump to make another court appearance for Cohen’s highly anticipated testimony

Trump is expected to make another appearance at the $250 million civil fraud trial as his former lawyer-turned-foe Cohen is set to testify against him.

Cohen’s highly anticipated testimony comes after he was originally scheduled to appear in court last week. He ultimately didn’t appear that day as planned, saying he was dealing with a health issue. Judge Arthur Engoron said last week that Cohen’s testimony would be delayed for at least a week.

Despite Cohen’s absence, Trump followed through on attending the trial on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, having originally planned to see Cohen take the stand. The former president isn’t required to attend the proceedings.

Trump has decried the trial as “rigged” for the lack of a jury and accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of attempting election interference amid his presidential campaign.

James sued Trump in Sept. 2022, alleging that he and his two adult sons engaged in efforts in inflate Trump’s personal net worth to make way for favorable loan agreements.