Donald Trump’s legal team repeatedly launch baseless public criticisms of a clerk in his New York civil fraud trial that have caused the attorney general’s staff to request that a gag order be reinstated.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a senior assistant solicitor general for the state of New York, urged that Donald Trump’s unnecessary comments against the clerk be met with the reinstatement of a gag order. Fan maintains that Trump’s comments are unwarranted and unlikely to overturn the gag order. The complaints are deemed offensive and personally identifying attacks that do not promote the orderly administration of the civil fraud trial.
This comes in the wake of thorny legal battles due to Trump’s public comments in other cases as well, including a pending federal election conspiracy trial in addition to the New York fraud trial. The New York civil fraud trial judge, Arthur Engoron, has fined Trump a total of $15,000 for breaching the gag order.
The judge has also found that Trump has engaged in inappropriate behavior by calling Greenfield, the principal court clerk, a “fraud.” He has also made unfounded claims about the partisan bias of the judge and the clerk. Trump’s legal team has argued that the gag order violates the candidate’s rights to free speech.
