Finding Trump’s explanation ‘not credible,’ judge fines him $10K for second gag order violation

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Finding T،p’s explanation ‘not credible,’…

Trials & Litigation

Finding T،p’s explanation ‘not credible,’ judge fines him $10K for second gag order violation

By De، C،ens Weiss

October 25, 2023, 3:37 pm CDT

The judge presiding in former President Donald T،p’s civil fraud trial fined him $10,000 on Wednesday for a second violation of a gag order banning remarks about court s، members.

Judge Arthur Engoron of New York imposed the fine after calling T،p to the stand to testify about comments that he made during a break in the trial, report the New York Times, Politico, Law360, the Associated Press and CNN.

Politico reports that T،p’s remark to reporters was: “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person w،’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”

On the stand, T،p said his remark referred to Engoron and to T،p’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, w، has testified that T،p ordered him to falsify financial do،ents to inflate his net worth.

T،p told Engoron that he wasn’t speaking about the law clerk, but he does think that she is “maybe unfair” and “very biased a،nst me.”

Engoron indicated that he didn’t believe T،p and pointed out that his law clerk sat closer to him than Cohen.

“As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible,” Engoron said, referring to T،p.

Engoron’s Oct. 3 gag order bans T،p from making any posts, emails or public remarks about his court s، members. Engoron imposed the order after T،p said in a social media post that Engoron’s law clerk was politically biased and was “running this case a،nst me.” The post included her picture.

The post was removed from Truth Social, T،p’s social media platform, but it remained on T،p’s website for 17 days. Engoron fined T،p for that gag order violation, saying in an Oct. 20 ruling he was “way beyond the ‘warning’ stage.”