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    Sunday, June 16, 2024

    Trump hit with limited gag order for blasting court clerk on social media

    Former President Donald Trump leaves the courtroom at the end of the second day in his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. Trump was in a New York court for his civil business fraud trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

    New York― The presiding judge at Donald Trump’s Manhattan fraud trial on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order on the former president after learning he’d targeted his clerk online.

    In the post presumably published from the courthouse after proceedings in state Attorney General Tish James’ case against Trump were underway, Trump shared a photo of Judge Arthur Engoron’s clerk, Allison Greenfield, with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. The caption referred to her as “Schumer’s girlfriend” and said she was “running the case against me.” The post also included a link to Greenfield’s Instagram account.

    After proceedings broke for lunch at 1 p.m., Judge Engoron unexpectedly summoned Trump and his lawyers back into the courtroom, but the media was not permitted re-entry. Soon after, the post had been deleted.

    Engoron did not address Trump directly, but his comments came after Trump’s campaign team circulated an email ripping the judge as a “far-left Democrat.”

    When Engoron got back on the bench at 3 p.m., almost an hour late, the judge — himself a regular target of Trump’s diatribes — said he had gone too far this time.

    “This morning, one of the defendants posted to a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff,” Engoron said.

    “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them,” the judge said, as Trump sat a few feet away from him, glowering at the defense table.

    “Failure to abide by this order will result in very serious sanctions,” Engoron warned.

    Engoron revealed the post came after he had asked defense lawyers off the record on Monday to tone down the online rhetoric targeting people involved in the case.

    Trump’s attacks on the various officials involved in his cases have had real-world consequences. Following his April indictment in the hush money case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Justice Juan Merchan were inundated with death threats and racist missives after Trump targeted them and their relatives on his social media site and in public remarks.

    Court officials also dealt with white powder scares and bogus bomb threats after Trump called on his followers to protest his arrest.

    Trump’s attack against Greenfield wasn’t his first of the day targeting the officials. At around 8 a.m., he fired off a lengthy diatribe lambasting AG James, whom he refers to by a nickname widely considered racist and regularly accuses of being racist. James is Black.

    Earlier Tuesday, Trump’s campaign team circulated an email ripping the judge as a “far-left Democrat.”

    The former president, fresh on the heels of being found liable for fraud by Engoron and ordered stripped of his business certificates, still stands to lose $250 million in the AG’s case now on trial. James’ office also seeks to permanently bar him from heading a New York business again.

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    (New York Daily News reporters Joe Wilkinson and Harry Parker contributed.)

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    ©2023 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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