Trump fined $5,000 for violating gag order in New York civil trial
By Jack Queen and Jasper Ward
(Reuters) -A New York judge on Friday fined Donald Trump $5,000 for violating a gag order barring the former U.S. president from disparaging court staff during his civil fraud trial, warning that any future transgressions would bring «far more severe» sanctions including imprisonment.
Justice Arthur Engoron said a Trump social media post attacking the judge's clerk — which was deleted from the former president's Truth Social platform — had remained visible on his 2024 campaign website two weeks after an order was issued to take it down.
The judge noted that the gag order violation appeared inadvertent, but added, «Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions.»
Those sanctions, the judge said, could include steeper fines and possible imprisonment.
Engoron is presiding over the trial on civil charges brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James accusing Trump of unlawfully inflating his net worth to dupe lenders.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in next year's U.S. election, holding a commanding lead over his rivals despite mounting legal troubles and court-ordered restrictions on his public statements.
Engoron imposed a limited gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump in a social media post shared a photo of the judge's top clerk posing with U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a critic of the former president, and called her the senator's «girlfriend.»
The judge in imposing the gag order said that comments directed at his staff were «unacceptable, inappropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.»
Trump at times has
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