Donald Trump, the former US president, made headlines again on Wednesday when he was fined $10,000 by New York judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over his civil fraud trial, for a second breach of a gag order prohibiting him from disparaging court employees.
On October 3 (Tuesday), Engoron issued the order after Trump falsely referred to the judge’s top clerk as Schumer’s “girlfriend” in a social media post in which the two were seen posing. The judge was a Democrat.
During a break in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James concerning Trump’s business practices, the former president told reporters in a hallway, “This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Engoron called Trump’s remarks a “blatant” violation of the gag order, speculating that he was making a reference to his clerk.
While Michael Cohen, his former fixer and lawyer, was testifying against Trump for a second day, Trump made his remarks in the hallway.
Before being punished, Trump told Engoron during his brief testimony on the witness stand that he had mentioned “you and Cohen” in his remarks.
As Christopher Kise, Trump’s lawyer, also stated, the judge rejected the idea that Cohen was the “partisan” person Trump had named.
“The idea that that statement would refer to the witness, that doesn’t make sense to me,” Engoron said. “Don’t do it again or it will be worse.”
Following his fine, Trump, the front-runner for the Republican candidature to oppose President Joe Biden in the US election of 2024, left the courtroom, according to Reuters.
Previously on Friday, October 20, Engoron fined Trump $5,000 and threatened to impose “far more severe” penalties, including jail time, for future infractions after learning that he had not removed a post criticizing the clerk.
Back when the gag order was first put into place, Engoron said that comments directed at his staff members were “unacceptable, inappropriate, and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.”
During the trial, Engoron’s clerk sat beside the judge, as is customary in state courts in New York.
During Cohen’s testimony, Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, told Engoron that she saw the clerk seem to roll her eyes, calling it “completely inappropriate.”
The trial focuses on claims that in order to deceive lenders and insurers, Trump and the Trump Organisation, his family business, illegally altered asset values and his net worth. The case has the potential to dismantle Trump’s empire.
During his two days of testimony, Cohen met Trump face-to-face for the first time in five years. Cohen testified on Tuesday that Trump “arbitrarily” inflated the value of real estate assets to obtain favourable insurance rates.
Cohen has written two books and launched a political podcast since severing ties and turning into one of Trump’s most vocal detractors.
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