Former President Donald Trump attends the second day of his civil trial on fraud charges in New York on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Curtis means Pool/Sipa USA New York
A New York judge imposed a limited gag order on defendant Donald Trump on Tuesday after the former president disparaged a key court employee during his corporate fraud civil trial.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued the order, which applies to all parties to the case and relates only to verbal attacks on court personnel. This came after Trump reposted a derogatory message posted on social media about Engoron’s chief legal aide, Allison Greenfield.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Engoron said a defendant in the case “posted a derogatory, false and personally identifying message about a member of my court on a social media account.” He added that “personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate” and will not be tolerated.
Trump had already deleted the post. Engoron said he ordered him to leave.
The post included a photo of Greenfield with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a campaign rally. Trump, the Republican front-runner for the presidency in 2024, has repeatedly described the lawsuit and trial as a political attack by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump also commented on the aide on Monday, saying she “shouldn’t be around (the judge) for every question” and that she “hates Trump.”
The gag order came after Trump and lawyers for both sides made repeated closed-door court appearances during the lunch break.
While Trump was present on the second day of the trial, an attorney from James’ team interviewed an accountant to bolster the state’s argument that Trump and others at his company had complete control over the creation of misleading and outright false financial reports as the main argument in the lawsuit against she.
Hours earlier, the judge said the former president’s assessment that most of the complaints in the fraud case had gone against him was untrue.
With Trump voluntarily in court for the second day, Judge Engoron made clear the remark that the former president had interpreted the day before as an important victory.
Engoron had suggested Monday that testimony about Trump’s 2011 financial disclosures could go beyond the current statutory deadline for Attorney General James’ lawsuit, which alleges that Trump and his companies were involved in financial documents shared with banks, insurance companies and others were, systematically lied.
The statute of limitations bars complaints before a date in 2014, and Trump’s legal team contends that excludes most evidence.
Engoron said Tuesday that “statutes of limitations bar claims, not evidence,” and that at this early stage in the trial he tends to give both sides plenty of flexibility to link prior evidence to the allegations contained in the lawsuit.
“I want to emphasize: this process is not an opportunity to criticize again what I have already decided,” Engoron said. The judge ruled last week that all claims were within the statute of limitations.
A lawyer at James’ firm, Kevin Wallace, suggested he wanted to use the 2011 document to show that Trump’s financial records were all written the same way – giving Trump and his company the final say on the valuations – for at least one of them.
Donald Bender, an accountant who prepared Trump’s financial statements for years, testified that Trump’s company provided the numbers copied into the documents. Bender said “PBC” (“Customer Prepared”) was stamped on each balance sheet in large red letters.
Bender testified that in some years the Trump Organization did not provide all of the documents required to prepare statements, even though it had confirmed in letters to the accounting firm that it had provided all financial records.
“They didn’t give us all the documentation we needed,” Bender testified, explaining that “there were certain appraisals over several years that we had never seen.”
Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, said during a break that he thought the trial was going “very well.” He reiterated defense arguments that the documents contained warnings, that they had not been reviewed and that other people “could come to different conclusions.”
“This case is a farce. “It can’t be fraud if institutions are told to do their jobs,” Trump said Tuesday.
After Monday’s sometimes intense testimony, Tuesday’s hearing moved so slowly that Bender twice let out a long sigh on the witness stand.
Trump plans to testify in the trial, but does not have to do so now. While he complained that he would rather be campaigning, the former president and 2024 GOP favorite used cameras in the courthouse hallway as a microphone to broadcast political messages. He alleges that James, a Democrat, is using the court system as a political cudgel to hinder her ongoing campaign.
James scored an early victory when Engoron, a Democrat, ruled last week that Trump committed fraud by exaggerating the size of his Trump Tower penthouse by claiming his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida was up valued at $739 million, and similar valuations ranged up to large office towers, golf courses and other assets.
The lawsuit addresses six remaining claims in the lawsuit and how much Trump may owe in sanctions. James is demanding $250 million and a ban on Trump doing business in New York. The judge has already ruled that some of Trump’s companies must be dissolved as punishment.
Trump’s lawyers said the financial reports were legitimate representations of the value of unique luxury properties made even more valuable by their association with Trump.
The trial is expected to last until December.
This story was originally published on October 3, 2023 at 2:35 p.m.