Trump Loses Gag Order Appeal in New York’s Top Court

The State of New York Court of Appeals dismissed former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a gag order on Jan. 16.

On Oct. 3, the second day of the trial, President Trump made a social media post about the judge’s principal law clerk, leading the judge to impose a gag order prohibiting parties from making any public statements about the judge’s staff. He had been fined $15,000 after two incidents the judge deemed a violation of the gag order later during the trial, and promptly paid the fines.

The trial has already concluded for the civil case brought against President Trump by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing him of persistent fraud through the Trump Organization statements of financial condition published annually from 2011 to 2021.

About a week before the trial began, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had ruled in favor of the attorney general, issuing a summary judgment that found President Trump liable for fraud and having inflated his net worth by up to $2.2 billion annually.

Push Against Gag Order

Defense attorneys have since argued that the case was stacked against them, having never gotten the opportunity to show that no fraud occurred at trial. Toward the second half of the trial, the defense attorneys alleged bias from the bench and a politically motivated case on the record, preparing to appeal what they expected to be an unfavorable ruling.

Around this time, President Trump seemed to test the boundaries of the gag order, mentioning a person sitting “alongside” the judge without naming the principal law clerk to reporters.

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Justice Engoron put President Trump on the witness stand to ask whether he was referring to his principal law clerk. Though President Trump responded that he was referring to Michael Cohen, a key witness against President Trump, the judge deemed him “not credible” as a witness and imposed a $10,000 fine. The first $5,000 fine had come after the judge was notified that a campaign website retained the initial post President Trump had made for weeks, even after it was deleted from social media.

After the incident, defense attorneys raised objections to law clerk Allison Greenfield’s role on the bench at length. It is not typical for a law clerk to preside on the bench over a case alongside the judge, or to confer with the judge frequently throughout the case. Defense attorneys argued Ms. Greenfield was giving input before the judge made many of his decisions, and was rolling her eyes during the defense’s questioning and showing signs of bias.

In court filings, including a motion to declare a mistrial, defense attorneys fleshed out an argument of bias on the bench with several more mentions of Ms. Greenfield. They pointed to her Democratic campaign contributions as inappropriate for judicial staff, campaign statements from her run for a civil judgeship, and argued that she was acting as a candidate and public figure who willingly posed for cameras in President Trump’s trial.

Attorneys for the judge and clerk responded by submitting an interview with a court risk officer who testified that the judge and clerk had received hundreds of voicemails and third-party threats since the case began, and they had only increased when President Trump made the issue a news item.

Defense attorneys argued that President Trump could not be held accountable for the speech of anonymous third parties, but the gag order remained, and was upheld by an appeals court. The defense pursued an appeals to New York’s top court despite the fact that the trial would be over by the time the case reached the court, likely to preserve a record for the appeal.

Other Consequences

The unsuccessful gag order appeal has hurt President Trump in a separate case as well; in a federal criminal case in Washington, President Trump was gagged from making statements about court staff and potential witnesses in relation to his case. Both a federal judge and an appeals panel of judges had referred to the New York gag order, pointing to the threats the law clerk received as rationale to impose a gag order.

In the New York case, Justice Engoron has said the earliest he would issue a ruling is the end of the month.

President Trump faces the cancellation of his business certificates and the dissolution of Trump Organization LLCs, to be managed by an independent third party, as well as being barred from doing business in New York State or with New York-based financial institutions permanently, and penalties of at least $370 million.