A New York state appeals court on Thursday rejected Donald Trump's attempt to lift a gag order that prevents the former US president from speaking publicly about court officials at his civil fraud trial in New York.
The judge presiding over the case, Judge Arthur Engoron, issued the silence order on October 3 after the former US president shared on social media a photo of the judge's legal assistant sitting with US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, posed and mistakenly called her Schumer's girlfriend.
The post “flooded” the courtroom with hundreds of threats from Trump supporters, Engoron said.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appealed the order last month, arguing that it violated his constitutional right to free speech.
On Thursday, the state's intermediate appeals court, known as the Appellate Division, said the gag order had no major impact.
“Here, the severity of the potential harm is low because the gag order is narrowly worded and is limited to prohibiting only statements made to court personnel,” the decision states.
Trump's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The testimony ended Wednesday in the trial of a lawsuit filed by New York's attorney general, who wants to fine Trump at least $250 million for lying and drastically restrict his business opportunities in New York home to several of his famous properties about his assets to deceive creditors.
Engoron has already ruled that Trump's financial statements were fraudulent and limited the verdict largely to damages. Engoron is expected to deliver a written verdict after closing arguments on January 11th.
Trump denies committing any wrongdoing and criticized the case.
The gag order was initially lifted by a judge on Nov. 16 when Trump appealed, but a panel of judges reinstated it two weeks later. Trump asked the Appellate Division for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court.
Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 for violating the order twice.
Trump faces a number of other legal problems, including four criminal cases, in his campaign against US President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election. He pleaded not guilty to all four.
None of these cases diminished the former president's lead in opinion polls over his rivals for the Republican nomination.
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