The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial threatened to fine or possibly jail him over a violation of a gag order issued in the case. Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 20 (UPI) — A Manhattan Supreme Court judge on Friday morning threatened former President Donald Trump with jail time for violating a gag order he placed on him during his civil fraud trial in New York.
Judge Arthur Engoron asked Trump’s attorneys to explain why he should not be fined or face jail time after a screenshot attacking the judge’s law clerk remained on donaldtrump.com in a “blatant violation” of the gag order on Trump.
“I made it clear failure to comply will result in serious sanctions. It remained on the Donald J. Trump campaign site and in fact it has been on there for the past 17 days, [and] it was removed late last night after an email from this court,” Engoron said, adding that “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,” he said.
Engoron said he would take the explanation provided by Trump’s Attorney Christopher Kise under advisement before issuing a ruling.
The liberal website MeidasTouch posted an article about the screenshot remaining up despite the gag order, which caught the attention of the judge and other media outlets. The post was ultimately removed on Thursday night.
Kise said it was “automatically” added to the website and the fact that it remained on the site after the gag order was issued was “truly inadvertent.”
“The Truth Social post was taken down when the court asked,” Kise said, adding that also Trump refrained from making comments about court staff after the order.
“But it appears no one took it down on the campaign website,” Kise said.
Engoron issued the order on Oct. 3 after Trump posted a photo of court clerk Allison Greenfield with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on his Truth Social site with the caption “Schumer’s girlfriend.”
The order placed a ban on any emails, posts or public remarks about the judge’s staff.
Trump has also taken aim at Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James who brought the case against him alleging that he and his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump organization committed fraud by inflating the values of his real estate properties by more than $2 billion.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also placed a gag order on Trump in his election interference case, which his lawyers have sought to appeal.
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