A gag order should remain on Donald Trump because of the “hundreds of threatening, harassing, and antisemitic messages” a judge and his staff have received, the New York attorney general’s office said in a court filing.
The former president’s lawyers are currently appealing Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order in the lawsuit against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James over the fraudulent evaluation of Trump properties.
While the fraud trial has continued at New York Supreme Court, court staff have received a huge number of threatening messages from Trump supporters.
Judge Engoron has twice fined Trump for breaking a gag order that prevents him from criticizing Engoron’s chief clerk, Allison Greenfield, and other court staff.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
In a filing to the New York First Division Appellate Court on Sunday night, Cleland B. Welton II, an assistant solicitor general in James’ office, wrote that the threats against Engoron’s staff have followed “personal attacks” by Donald Trump. Welton asked the appellate court to keep the gag order in place.
He highlighted a sworn statement by Charles Hollon, of New York’s Judicial Threats Assessment Unit, “which documents the hundreds of threatening, harassing, and antisemitic messages that Supreme Court and its staff have received as an evident result of the personal attacks that triggered the [gag] orders.
Hollon “attested that such messages reflect an ongoing security risk for the judge, his staff and his family.”
He also noted that Hollon “explained that the number of threats increased each time Mr. Trump made personal attacks on the court’s staff and that it considered such threats ‘serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative’.”
Trump’s gag order “led to a decrease in the number of threatening messages that the court and its staff received,” Welton wrote.
Trump’s lawyers filed a petition to the appellate court on November 15, seeking a writ of prohibition against enforcement of the gag order.
His appeal also challenged the two fines, totalling $15,000, that Engoron imposed on Trump for breaking the gag order. In both those cases, it was for Trump’s criticism of Greenfield.
Welton said Engoron “placed exceedingly narrow restrictions on the speech of the parties and their counsel, respectively, in response to extraordinary and dangerous personal attacks that petitioner Donald J. Trump and petitioners’ counsel made against the court’s staff during trial.”
Welton said Trump’s “asserted free-speech injuries are insubstantial in light of the narrow scope of the challenged orders. Those orders do not prevent petitioners or their counsel from criticizing the [New York] Supreme Court, the presiding justice, the plaintiff, the witnesses, or the substance of the proceedings.”
Newsweek sought email comment on Monday from Trump’s attorney.
Trump, the frontrunner in the polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, testified in the fraud trial on November 6 and has denied any wrongdoing.
Donald Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and senior executives at The Trump Organization, are also accused of assisting the former president and have testified in the trial stating they barely had any involvement with the annual financial statements of the company, which they had signed. Instead, they said they relied on the accounting firm they had hired.
In September, Engoron ruled that Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Trump Jr., had committed fraud in their property evaluations.
The court will decide on six other accusations, including falsifying business records, insurance fraud, and conspiracy claims. Engoron himself will rule on the charges, as Trump’s legal team did not opt for a jury trial.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.