A gag order against former President Donald Trump during his civil fraud trial was reinstated by a New York appeals court on Thursday.
The four-judge panel denied Trump’s request to lift the order, which prohibits the 2024 presidential candidate from posting or speaking publicly about members of the judge’s staff.
The decision from the appeals court arrives two weeks after an appellate judge put the gag order on a temporary hold after Trump’s counsel filed a lawsuit against Judge Arthur Engoron challenging his order as abuse of power.
“Trump’s counsel argued in their request to eliminate the gag order that Judge Arthur Engoron’s enforcement of it ‘casts serious doubt’ on his ability to serve as an ‘impartial finder of fact’ overseeing Trump’s case,” per The Hill.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately comment on the decision, according to AP News.
On Oct. 3, Engoron, who is overseeing the trial, issued a gag order after the former president slammed the clerk, Allison Greenfield, in a Truth Social post.
“Schumer’s girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!” Trump wrote in the post, which included a screenshot from a Judicial Protest post.
The screenshot features a photo of Greenfield with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York with the caption, “Why is Judge Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk … palling around with Chuck Schumer?”
The judge, without naming Trump, said “one of the defendants” posted a “disparaging, untrue and personally-identifying post” about the staff member, which was sent to “millions of other recipients.”
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are not appropriate and I will not tolerate it under any circumstance,” Engoron said, per The Hill.
The offending Truth Social post has since been removed per the judge’s orders.
“Court officials in a filing last week said that following Trump's social media post, ‘threats, harassment and disparaging comments increased exponentially’ against Engoron and his staff,” Axios reports. “Lawyers for Trump argued in a subsequent filing that any threats received do not justify the order.”
An exclusive Oct. 4 report from SCNR revealed that Greenfield has an alleged history of campaigning, canvassing, and petitioning for Democratic candidates in violation of federal ethics guidelines.
The information was revealed in a letter written to Engoron by Brock Fredin, who operates X account Judicial Protest.
Fredin argued that the judge and Greenfield should be investigated over “any ethical violations or misconduct in connection with her partisan political speech.”
“The Court’s Gag Order is a clear attempt to paper over the apparent ethical violations by Ms. Greenfield and Your Honor and redirect animus and negative headlines at President Trump,” states the letter, which was obtained by SCNR. “Without this letter putting Ms. Greenfield’s misconduct in the record, the Court’s Gag Order of today will no doubt be the dam that will break causing the issuance of even more Gag Orders in other cases against President Trump that will unconstitutionally infringe on his First Amendment rights.”
The letter cites numerous examples from Greenfield’s now-private Instagram account where the law clerk endorsed local Democrat organizations, petitioned on behalf of and canvassed for New York Democrats, and attended events for groups including Village Independent Democrats, the Grand Street Democrats, the Chelsea Reform Democrat Club, the United Democrat Organization, and the Downtown Independent Democrats.
Cassandra MacDonald contributed to this report
