Trump fined $10,000 for violating gag order in court

Judge Brian Cogan of the New York court hearing civil fraud charges against Donald Trump yesterday fined the former president $10,000 for breaking an injunction not to criticise court staff.

According to AFP, Judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump, his second such penalty, since he broke a partial gag order by speaking to the media during a break in the trial.

After Trump insulted the judge’s chief law clerk in a post on his Truth Social platform on October 3, Engoron issued a limited gag order against the president.

The judge penalised Trump $5,000 last week for failing to remove the offensive message from his 2024 presidential campaign website immediately after it was removed from Truth Social.

The most recent penalty was levied because of Trump’s claim that Engoron has “a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”

Trump’s lawyers have stated that the former president was not referring to the judge’s clerk but rather to the witness, Trump’s former lawyer turned bitter rival Michael Cohen.

Once again, Trump said that he was referring to Cohen when the court quickly called him to the witness stand.

Following Trump’s address, the judge ruled that “the defendant was not credible” and issued the penalty.

Trump exited the courtroom suddenly not long after that.

Trump is widely expected to win the Republican nominee for president in 2024, but he and his two eldest sons are currently under investigation for allegedly misrepresenting the value of the Trump Organization’s real estate assets in order to obtain better loan and insurance terms.

The former president has been very critical of Engoron, calling him a “Trump-hating judge,” but the gag order issued on October 3 simply prohibits criticism of court personnel.

A partial gag order was issued on Trump by the federal court who will preside over his March trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, but the judge temporarily lifted the order so that Trump’s legal team could file objections.