Arthur Engoron, the judge overseeing the ongoing trial in New York on business fraud claims from the state’s Attorney General Letitia James against former President Donald Trump and close associates of his including family members, is taking the enforcement of a recent gag order very seriously.
Engoron previously demanded that no public disparagement be made targeting members of court staff, an order from the judge that followed public antagonism from Trump of a clerk for the judge, who the former president named online. There is a clear precedent for rhetoric of the sort in which Trump so often engages leading to real-world violence or at least the still damaging threat of it. And on Wednesday, Engoron raised the issue in court of Trump having potentially violated the order with comments made outside the courtroom… though an attorney for the former president had an excuse at the ready, claiming Trump meant Michael Cohen.
Cohen is the infamous former lawyer for Trump who made a very public break with the former president. Per journalist Erica Orden, Trump said the following: “It would have been fair at least…because no negative jury would vote against me. But this judge will, because this judge is a very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside… perhaps even much more partisan than he is.” Cohen has recently been testifying.
“I am very protective of my staff, as I should be… I don’t want anybody killed,” the judge added, per Orden. “After Kise claimed Trump was referring to Cohen, Judge Engoron said he would take the matter under advisement,” the journalist continued. And Engoron reportedly again raised the prospect of serious penalties in response to Trump’s handling of the gag order’s requirements, which the judge suggested was “dangerous.” The judge previously spoke of potentially going as far as jail time for the former president, a discussion that followed the revelation a copy of the post disparaging the clerk had remained on a website tied to Trump for weeks this month.
