Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has been reprimanded by the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial for violating a gag order. Judge Arthur Engoron expressed his frustration with the lawyers, stating that a social media post attacking his secretary remained on Trump’s campaign website for 17 days after his order to remove it. Engoron warned that serious sanctions, including financial penalties and potentially imprisonment, could be imposed on the former president.
The offending post was removed from the recently launched Truth Social platform, which was developed by Trump, but not from DonaldJTrump.com. Trump attorney Chris Kise apologized to Engoron, claiming that the oversight was inadvertent and occurred on a lesser-known section of the campaign website. Kise assured the judge that Trump had ordered the publication to be taken down and that there was no intention to evade or ignore the order. He attributed the mistake to the complex nature of the campaign machinery.
Engoron acknowledged Kise’s explanation but stressed that Trump remained responsible for his campaign’s actions. The judge noted the potential harm caused by inflammatory falsehoods in the current divisive climate. Engoron issued the partial gag order on October 3 after Trump’s attack on the Secretary of State on Truth Social, in which he falsely claimed she was the girlfriend of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and shared a photo of them together.
In a separate development, Ivanka Trump is seeking to quash a subpoena for her testimony in the civil fraud trial. Ivanka argues that the court lacks jurisdiction over her since she is not a party to the case and has not been a New York resident for seven years. The former president’s daughter was initially named as a defendant in the lawsuit but was later dismissed by a New York appeals court due to the alleged conduct falling outside the statute of limitations.
Ivanka’s legal team argues that requiring her to appear in person for testimony without limitations is unreasonable. Furthermore, they criticize the New York attorney general’s subpoenas for lacking specificity and insight into the information sought. They claim that the subpoenas extend far beyond the necessary scope and impose an excessive burden on Ivanka to fill gaps in the attorney general’s case.
The civil fraud trial against Donald Trump continues, with both the gag order violation and Ivanka’s motion to quash the subpoena awaiting further action.