Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he arrives at the New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, in New York City on Dec. 7, 2023.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday returned to the $250 million civil fraud trial that threatens his business empire and his family’s ability to work in the Empire State.
Trump has wielded the wall-to-wall media coverage generated by his prior court appearances as a club against the case, which he decries as a politically motivated witch hunt.
It’s also a prime opportunity to raise money for his 2024 Republican presidential campaign — and whip up support from his base.
In a campaign fundraising email entitled “Returning to Court,” Trump slammed the trial while noting that the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses are less than 40 days away.
“In some ways, I will still be on the campaign trail today,” Trump said in the email, claiming the image of him in court will remind voters of “just how corrupt our government has become.”
But he may have to watch his words more carefully this time around. Trump’s gag order in the case was reinstated last week after being temporarily suspended while his lawyers challenged it in an appeals court.
The gag order bars Trump from making public statements about the staff of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the ongoing trial.
Engoron had imposed the gag order on Trump after the former president repeatedly targeted the judge’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield.
“There is only so much I can say to you at this time,” Trump said in the fundraising email.
Trump is still allowed to publicly criticize the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case. James accuses Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, the Trump Organization and its top executives of fraudulently inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other key…
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