President Donald Trump filed an appeal on Dec. 15 against a gag order in his New York civil fraud trial to the state’s highest court.
“Petitioners President Donald J. Trump ... hereby appeal to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York from the Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, First Department, dated December 14, 2023,” the former president’s attorney stated in a filing.
In an order issued on Nov. 30, a four-judge panel of the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division overturned a temporary suspension of the gag order which initially was imposed by Justice Arthur Engoron on Oct. 3.
The newly reimposed gag order prohibits President Trump from making public statements about the judge’s staff after documents filed with the appeals court showed that the judge and his staff had purportedly received hundreds of threatening messages.
Justice Engoron, who’s presiding over President Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, initially imposed the order in early October after President Trump accused the judge’s top clerk of political bias in a post on social media.
Background
A day after President Trump’s trial began in a civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the former president made a Truth Social post about Allison Greenfield, Justice Engoron’s principal law clerk.
The post included a screenshot of a photo of her posing with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a political event, with President Trump labeling Ms. Greenfield as a Democratic Party loyalist.
“Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How Disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately,” President Trump wrote in the post, which he subsequently deleted after the judge was made aware of the post and issued a verbal gag order in court on the same day.
However, President Trump was later fined $5,000 after Justice Engoron was informed that one of the former president’s campaign websites retained a page archiving the original Truth Social post. The former president was fined another $10,000 when he mentioned in remarks to the press a “partisan” person sitting “alongside” the judge, although he didn’t identify the person by name.
Later, the judge expanded the gag order to include President Trump’s attorneys, prohibiting them from making statements about the judge’s staff or communications between himself and his staff members.
Trump Lawyers File Motion for Directed Verdict
Mr. Trump’s attorneys filed a motion on Dec. 15 urging Judge Engoron to end the trial with a directed verdict.The motion for a directed verdict was filed four times before, and all were rejected by the judge. Justice Engoron also indicated that he would reject a similar motion when Mr. Trump’s attorneys said they would file it again.
Justice Engoron said he absolutely wouldn’t grant such a motion.
There’s no victim, no conspiracy, and New York Attorney General Letitia James failed to prove materiality in the allegations, Mr. Trump’s attorney stated in the filing. The attorney general’s office also didn’t demonstrate that Mr. Trump and other defendants in this case had intention to defraud, the attorneys argued.
“The testimony from the defense experts as to the governing accounting standards and the SOFCs compliance with such standards negates fully any even theoretical assertion of intentional misconduct,” the filing reads.
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants respectfully request that the Court grant their motion for a directed verdict, terminate immediately all remaining causes of action, and reject the Attorney General’s claim for disgorgement relief.”
