The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s $250 million civil fraud trial in New York raised the possibility on Friday of putting the former president in prison after Trump failed to comply with a partial gag order requiring him to remove a post trashing the judge’s law clerk on social media.
Judge Arthur Engoron said in court on Friday morning that Trump had posted on his social media account “an untrue and disparaging post about my clerk” and that he spoke to the former president about the matter.
“I ordered him to remove the post immediately and he said he did take it down,” Engoron said.
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.”
Engoron said the post, however, remained on Trump’s 2024 campaign website for 17 days and was removed late Thursday night after the court emailed him. The judge imposed the limited gag order in early October.
“Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm. I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could possibly imprison him,” Engoron said.
In response, Trump’s defense attorney, Chris Kise said, “Based on my understanding this was truly inadvertent.”
“The Truth Social post was taken down when the court asked,” Kise said. “Truth Social was taken down and Trump never made any more comments about court staff, but it appears no one took it down on the campaign website. It is unfortunate and I apologize on behalf of my client.”
The judge said he would take Trump’s lawyer’s remarks “under advisement” but stated that Trump is still responsible for what appears on his campaign website.
In his online posts and in public remarks to reporters, Trump implied that the clerk had an inappropriate relationship with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer spokeswoman Allison Biasotti categorically denied the claim, calling it “pathetic,” “ridiculous, absurd and false.” She said that Schumer does not know the clerk.
Trump has also bashed Engoron in public statements and in emails sent out by his presidential campaign, including one criticizing the judge as a “far-left Democrat.”
Trump also faces a partial gag order in one of the four criminal cases against him. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who’s overseeing the D.C. election interference case, banned Trump from making statements about potential witnesses or disparaging comments about the prosecutors.
The New York civil fraud trial, which does not have a jury, began in early October. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump in Sept. 2022, alleging that the former president and his two adult sons had engaged in efforts to inflate Trump’s personal net worth to attract favorable loan agreements. James alleges that there were more than 200 instances of fraud over a 10-year period.
In a ruling allowing the trial to proceed, Engoron said that Trump committed fraud for years, inflating and deflating the value of his assets to his own benefit and overstating his wealth by billions.
The attorney general is seeking about $250 million in penalties and to permanently bar the Trump family from serving as officers of New York companies and prevent Trump from striking commercial real estate deals in the state for five years.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
