Judge Threatens Trump With Jail Time After Gag Order Violation
Arthur Engoron, the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s $250 million civil fraud trial on Friday fined the former president $5,000 and threatened jail time for defying a partial gag order requiring him to remove a post trashing the judge's law clerk on social media.
Judge 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.”
“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 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.
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.
