The Manhattan judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud case threatened to jail him on Friday for violating a gag order, according to Courthouse News.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order on Oct. 3 barring Trump from posting about court staff after he made a “disparaging, untrue and personally-identifying” Truth Social post about law clerk Allison Greenfield. Engoron put sanctions, including imprisonment, on the table Friday after discovering that Trump had not removed the offending post, which included a photo of Greenfield with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and referred to her as his “girlfriend,” from his campaign website for 17 days, Courthouse News reported.
“Despite this clear order, last night I learned that the subject’s offending post was never removed from the website DonaldJTrump.com, and in fact, had been on that website for the last 17 days,” Engoron said Friday, according to Courthouse News. “I will now grant defendants the opportunity to explain why this blatant violation of the gag order should not result in serious sanctions, including financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt and possibly imprisoning him.”
While the Truth Social post itself was deleted shortly after the order, it remained on his website, donaldjtrump.com, and was only removed Thursday night following an email from the court, according to NBC News. Christopher Kise, lead counsel for Trump, told the judge it was “inadvertent,” and that the campaign team forgot to delete it from the website, per Courthouse News. (RELATED: ‘He Should Be Disbarred’: Trump Rips Judge In Fraud Case, Calls Ruling ‘Election Interference’)
Former President Donald Trump makes a policy announcement in a video. (Screenshot/Rumble/The Daily Caller)
“The Truth Social post was taken down when the court asked,” Kise said, according to NBC News. “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.”
Engoron ruled in September that Trump committed fraud by exaggerated the value of his assets and net worth, including his Mar-a-Lago estate, thereby deceiving banks and insurance companies.
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