MANHATTAN (CN) — Judge Arthur Engoron issued another gag order on Friday in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in Manhattan after a heated argument with the former president’s lawyers.
“I hereby order that all counsel are prohibited from making any public statements, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me,” Engoron wrote in the three-page ruling.
The order came after repeated complaints from Trump’s attorneys about Engoron’s law clerk. It’s the same law clerk that Donald Trump attacked on social media last month, prompting another gag order from the judge.
“Failure to abide by this directive shall result in serious sanctions,” Engoron continued.
On Thursday, Trump’s lead attorney Chris Kise made a comment about the clerk that enraged the judge. It wasn’t immediately clear what Kise had said at the time, but MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin reported the full quote on Friday morning.
“I'll wait again to get the note that you have from Ms. Greenfield. You may have a question for me. Maybe it is about dinner,” Kise had said Thursday, according to Rubin.
Engoron chided him for the swipe at his clerk, chalking it up to “a bit of misogyny” in Kise’s repeated complaints of what he claims is her bias. He warned Kise to stop criticizing members of his staff in public, citing concerns for their safety.
The judge opened Friday’s proceedings with a stern warning to Kise.
“I hope I made myself clear yesterday,” Engoron said.
But Kise contested that he was still concerned about the clerk’s conduct, specifically drawing issue with the number of notes she appears to pass Engoron during the trial. Engoron acknowledged that complaint in his Friday ruling.
“Defendants’ attorneys have made long speeches alleging that it is improper for a judge to consult with a law clerk during ongoing proceedings, and that the passing of notes from a judge to a law clerk, or vice versa, constitutes an improper ‘appearance of impropriety’ in this case,” Engoron wrote. “These arguments have no basis.”
Engoron told Kise on Friday that he is “absolutely certain” that he has the right to receive notes from members of his staff. Kise said that he was merely raising the issue on behalf of his clients for the court’s record.
“We are not permitted to note for the record any observation?” Kise asked, adding that he feels like he’s “fighting two adversaries.”
The judge implored Kise to file a motion rather than continuously complain about the clerk in open court.
“You’ve had four weeks now, and you've made a record continuously,” Engoron said, “If you want to make a motion at this point, go ahead and do it. There’s no more need to make a record, you have such a complete record. What more record do you want?”
Engoron appears increasingly concerned with the safety of his staff, given the highly publicized and politically polarized nature of this trial. He mentions that this “narrowly tailored” gag order is solely designed to protect them from harassment and violence.
“The threat of, and actual, violence resulting from heated political rhetoric is well-documented,” he wrote in the ruling. “Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages.”
The judge added that the defense lawyers’ First Amendment right, which Kise argued was being violated, “is far and away outweighed by the need to protect” his staff from harassment.
The court has already fined Trump a total of $15,000 for twice violating his similarly narrow gag order. He was fined $5,000 for failing to delete a derogatory post on his campaign website, then fined $10,000 when he took an indirect jab at a “person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the judge.
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