The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has threatened to impose “serious sanctions”, including possible jail time, on the former president for not complying with a partial gag order.
Judge Arthur Engoron said in court on Friday morning that Trump had posted on his social media account “an untrue and disparaging post about my clerk” and that he spoke to the former president about the matter, according to NBC News.
“I ordered him to remove the post immediately and he said he did take it down,” Engoron was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
“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,” the judge added.
A spokesperson for New York state Attorney-General Letitia James, who brought the case, declined to comment.
Engoron slapped a limited gag order on Trump earlier this month after he insulted a court clerk in a social media post on his Truth Social platform.
The post was removed from Truth Social the same day, but the judge complained that it was not immediately taken down from the campaign website.
“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 in remarks reported by US media and confirmed to AFP by a court spokesman.
“I understand that it was removed late last night, but only in response to an e-mail from this court,” the judge said. “In the current climate, incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already have, led to serious physical harm and worse.”
Engoron said he would give Trump’s lawyers “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”.
According to NBC News, one of Trump’s attorneys, Chris Kise, told the judge that it was an oversight.
He said the post was taken down from Trump’s Truth Social network after the judge’s ruling, “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 apologise on behalf of my client”.
The judge reportedly said he would take the lawyer’s remarks “under advisement”.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the 77-year-old Trump not to publicly attack prosecutors, court staff or potential witnesses ahead of the trial scheduled to begin in Washington in March 2024.
Donald Trump
