Trump's Lawyers Double Down on Attacks on New York Judge's 'Partisan' Clerk in Bid to Spike Gag Order – The Messenger
Former President Donald Trump's lawyers renewed their attacks on Monday on the judge presiding over his civil fraud trial and his principal law clerk, days after revelations that both have been besieged with "hundreds" of threats.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron gagged Trump and his attorneys from making statements about his staff, in a pair of orders temporarily suspended by an intermediate appellate court.
On Monday, Trump's attorney Clifford Robert asked New York's Appellate Division, First Department to permanently overturn the gag orders — which bar attacks on Engoron's staff, but not the judge himself.
Engoron justified the orders to protect the safety of his staff, noting that "hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages" have poured into chambers since trial began.
In a sworn affirmation, a court security officer disclosed some of the antisemitic threats Engoron and his clerk have received since trial began.
"I mean, honestly, you should be assassinated," a caller fumed in one of those voicemails, transcribed in court records made public on Wednesday. "You should be killed."
Trump's lawyers downplayed the possibility that "an unknown third party may react in a hostile or offensive manner" the former president's attacks on the clerk.
"This should be rejected," Robert wrote, insisting there is "no indication" Trump has "any connection or exercise any control" to the people making the threats.
The court security officer observed that the threats against the clerk spike after Trump attacks her on social media and ebbed during the period the former president was gagged.
But the Trump family's attorney disavowed any connection between the events.
"It bears repeating that President Trump and his counsel have never called for violence against the Principal Law Clerk nor encouraged, or even condoned, the behavior [court security Capt. Charles] Hollon describes," wrote Robert, who was questioning a defense witness when the 1,902-page filing was docketed in the appellate court.
Judges and prosecutors tied to Trump's criminal cases routinely face violent threats after the former president attacks them on social media. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who returned the first indictment against Trump in the hush money case, received a death threat in an envelope that contained a white powder. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump's federal election-obstruction case in Washington, D.C., received another death threat that led to an indictment.
Engoron issued the gag order on the second day of trial after Trump baselessly accused the clerk on social media of being the "girlfriend" of married Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader. The judge ordered Trump to delete the "untrue" and "disparaging" post — and then issued the initial gag order after the former president complied.
Trump has been found in violation of the gag order twice since that time, racking up $15,000 in fines in total, which are also under appeal.
"Each time Justice Engoron has sua sponte punished President Trump, he warns that the punishments will increase in severity until, apparently, Justice Engoron imprisons President Trump without abiding by any procedural protection to which President Trump is entitled by law," Robert's filing states.
The narrow gag order permits Trump to criticize Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit threatening the former president's New York business empire.
Trump's legal team alleges that even that violates his right to criticize the clerk, whom they accuse — as evidence of purported bias — of rolling her eyes at the defense lawyers, passing notes frequently to the judge and whispering too loudly to Engoron.
Engoron has rebuked those complaints as a "red herring," noting that only he issues rulings, not his staff.
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