Judge Arthur Engoron on Thursday defended his $10,000 sanction against Donald Trump after the former president violated the gag order barring public comments about members of the judge’s staff, rejecting another appeal by Trump’s attorneys to drop the fine.
Before trial testimony began Thursday morning, Trump’s attorney Chris Kise asked Engoron again to reconsider his fine against Trump. Engoron responded that he would watch the video of Trump’s comments to reporters Wednesday that spurred the fine and reconsider.
“Anybody can run for president. I am going to protect my staff,” Engoron said.
After the court’s first break of the day, Engoron returned and said the fine stood, reaffirming his ruling after watching the video.
There was “a clear transition” between Trump’s comments referring to Engoron’s clerk and a subsequent comment about Michael Cohen, the judge said.
Trump’s legal team indicated they intend to appeal the latest sanctions against the former president. They’ve already appealed two other sets of sanctions imposed in this case so far.
The sanctions against Trump stemmed from his comments in the hallway of the courthouse during a break in the trial Wednesday, while Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, was on the stand.
“This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him – perhaps even much more partisan than he is,” Trump said.
Engoron had put a gag order in place the first week of the trial after Trump had posted on social media attacking his clerk.
The judge also issued a written order expanding on the ruling from Wednesday.
“Using imprecise language as an excuse to create plausible ambiguity about whether defendant violated this Court’s unequivocal gag order is not a defense; the subject…
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