Former President Donald Trump made several posts on Truth Social about the judge and prosecutor after the events of Wednesday’s trial, where witness Michael Cohen appeared to backtrack in his testimony against President Trump, and the federal judge fined President Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order.
“The Judge in the New York State A.G. case refuses to accept the overturning of his decisions by the Appeals Court. This is a first in the history of the State! HE HAS GONE CRAZY IN HIS HATRED OF ‘TRUMP,’” he wrote in Thursday morning.
‘Alongside’
On Wednesday, President Trump called the judge “partisan” in remarks to reporters, as well as the person “alongside him,” without naming the person.“This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him–perhaps even much more partisan than he is,” he said.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron frequently deliberates with his principal law clerk Allison Greenfield, who sits beside him on the bench.
After the Associated Press reported that President Trump attacked Ms. Greenfield again—his now-deleted Oct. 3 post sharing a photo of her and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was what prompted the gag order against remarks against court staff–the judge read the remarks in the courtroom.
Chris Kise, an attorney for President Trump, told the judge that his client had been referring to Mr. Cohen, who was sitting in the witness stand next to the judge.
A short while later, the judge said he was calling a hearing on the matter, and put President Trump on the witness stand, where he said he had been referring to Mr. Cohen in those comments.
Justice Engoron deemed the witness “not credible,” and imposed a $10,000 fine for a gag order violation.
In his written order filed Thursday, the judge wrote that “I find this testimony rings hollow and untrue.”
The witness box is separated from the judge’s bench with a wooden barrier, while his principal law clerk sits right next to him, he explained, referring to dictionary definitions of “alongside.”
“Witnesses do not sit ‘alongside’ the judge, they sit in the witness box, separated from the judge by a low wooden barrier,” he wrote in the order.
“Futhermore, Donald Trump’s past public statements demonstrate him referring to Michael Cohen directly by his name, or by a derogatory name, but in all circumstances, he is unambiguous in making it known he is referring to Michael Cohen,” the judge wrote. “Using imprecise language as an excuse to create plausible ambiguity about whether defendant violated this Court’s unequivocal gag order is not a defense.”
In the courtroom, the judge had been skeptical of the defense, noting that President Trump’s team has been attacking Mr. Cohen’s “dishonesty” rather than the fact that he is “partisan.”
After he decided to issue the $10,000 fine, attorneys for President Trump noted that Ms. Greenfield did have an influence on the proceedings, frequently conferring with the judge during witness questioning and passing him many notes. Attorney Alina Habba said she did not appreciate Ms. Greenfield “rolling her eyes” at her when she questioned witnesses.
Throughout the proceedings, President Trump has continued to post about the judge and prosecutor Attorney General Letitia James, claiming they “hate” him and the trial was brought under unfair circumstances.
Thursday afternoon he claimed that the case should have been dismissed, accusing the judge of ignoring decisions from the appeals court and refusing to dismiss the case after Mr. Cohen’s testimony.
The appeals court previously put a pause on Justice Engoron’s order to dissolve Trump Organization and its related limited liability companies (LLCs), and also previously put a statute of limitations on the case. The judge has continued to allow evidence and arguments regarding documents before the statute of limitations, with the condition that the prosecutors can link them to relevant issues within the statute of limitations.
Mr. Cohen, once the personal attorney of President Trump but now turned critic, had testified on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday, he claimed that President Trump ordered him to “reverse engineer” numbers to meet an “arbitrary” net worth he wanted to reach. On Wednesday morning, upon being presented with a 2019 testimony transcript where he implied no such thing ever happened, he claimed he had lied to the congressional committee. But then on Wednesday afternoon, he reversed course and said he had not lied, and that he stood by his 2019 answer where he could not “recall” President Trump ever asking him to “inflate” numbers.
President Trump’s team asked the judge more than once to end and dismiss the case based on the discrediting of Mr. Cohen as a witness, but the judge rejected those arguments, saying he did not consider Mr. Cohen to be the “key” witness of the case, and there was other evidence to consider.
