Trump lawyers in NYC fraud case hit with new gag order amid ongoing comments about court staff

NEW YORK — The judge presiding over the Trump family’s fraud case laid out the real-world effect of Donald Trump’s ongoing verbal attacks in a new gag order barring his lawyers from continuing to remark on his “confidential communications” with his staff during proceedings.

Judge Arthur Engoron threatened “serious sanctions” if they disobeyed it, and has questioned whether ongoing comments about his clerk are rooted in mysogyny.

Engoron and his staff have been inundated with harassing and threatening hate mail, the Manhattan jurist wrote Friday.

“The threat of, and actual, violence resulting from heated political rhetoric is well-documented. Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages,” Engoron wrote.

“The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm.”

The order came a day after Engoron questioned whether Chris Kise’s frequent jabs at his clerk were grounded in misogyny — and hours after the Trump lawyer continued to speculate about his relationship with his staffer.

Citing allegations about unseemly “partisan political contributions” by the clerk published in the right-wing outlet Breitbart, which he admitted he hadn’t investigated himself, Kise on Friday morning said he was behooved to make a record about his suspicions, arguing “the whole world is watching.” He threatened to file for a mistrial.

Engoron said the Trump team’s legal arguments had hit rock bottom.

“It’s a shame that we descended to this level. I agree that the world is watching,” Judge Engoron said, imploring Kise, once again, to stop commenting on his staff.

The clerk sits with Engoron on the bench and plays an active role advising him in the complex financial fraud case, as she did in the investigation that preceded the New York attorney general’s September 2022 lawsuit against Trump’s real estate empire.

Trump has been fined $15,000 for twice violating an Oct. 3 gag order instigated by his Truth Social post about Engoron’s clerk, which incorrectly stated she was dating Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. The source of the Breitbart article Kise cited Friday runs the Twitter account that first spread the rumor.

On Thursday, when Kise swiped at the clerk for passing a note to Engoron — asking whether “it is about dinner” — the judge said he’d expand the gag order to include the lawyer if he didn’t quit with the remarks.

“Sometimes I think there may be a bit of misogyny in the fact that you keep referring to my female principal law clerk,” Engoron said, repeating his concern for his staff’s safety. New York officials involved in Trump’s myriad cases have been subjected to death threats.

The judge noted the gag order does not apply to criticizing him, something he said Trump’s side had “taken advantage of.”

Before wrapping up about five and a half hours of testimony over two days, Eric Trump continued to deny responsibility for fraudulent statements that inflated his father’s net worth in business deals.

“I would not sign something that was not accurate,” he testified Friday.

That testimony and a wealth of correspondence about appraisals displayed in court contrasted with Eric’s claims he had nothing to do with pricing properties in his dad’s portfolio. His denials mirrored those of his older brother, Don Jr., who testified before him.

The Trump sons, executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization, both said despite their senior roles, they shouldn’t be held responsible for inaccuracies in records they certified.

Trump’s first born, who struck a jollier tone in court than his poker-faced younger brother, pinned responsibility on the company’s in-house and outside accountants.

“The accountants worked on it,” Don Jr. told the court Wednesday. “That’s what we pay them to do.”

After Trump takes the stand Monday, Judge Engoron will hear at last from his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who on Friday withdrew her appeal fighting the subpoena to testify. Ivanka was initially a defendant in the case but won dismissal on appeal for time-barred claims.

Trump’s lawyers are expected to begin their defense case after Ivanka has finished. They have 127 witnesses on their list, but it’s unclear if they’ll call all of them.

In a pretrial ruling, Engoron determined Trump, his adult sons, and ex-Trump Org execs Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney are liable for the AG’s top fraud claim. He found they engaged in persistent fraud by lying about the value of company assets by billions in statements submitted in deals from 2014 to 2021.

In the trial entering its sixth week, after which Engoron will rule on the remaining six claims, lawyers for the AG have been making the case that Trump and his crew conspired to inflate property values to illegally profit in deals with banks and lenders and land Trump a spot on the Forbes Rich List.

The AG is seeking to recover $250 million in “ill-gotten gains” and a court order permanently barring Trump and his co-defendants from serving as head of a New York company. Engoron’s pretrial ruling stripped them of state certificates required to run a business, which is on pause pending the outcome of their appeal.

An expert witness Engoron heard from Wednesday estimated financial institutions lost more than $168 million in interest due to the fraudulent numbers.

Trump, his children, and former executives deny all wrongdoing. Among other arguments, they’ve claimed that the value of a building is in the eye of the beholder.

Outside the courthouse, Eric railed against James and said his dad was ready to go under oath on Monday.

“I know he’s very fired up to be here, and he thinks this is one of the most incredible injustices he’s ever seen,” Eric told reporters.

“We’ve done absolutely nothing wrong — we have a better company then they could ever imagine.”

The case that threatens the future of Trump’s real estate empire is among a maelstrom facing the Republican frontrunner, encompassing 91 felonies across four criminal cases and a slew of lawsuits.

On Friday, the former president saw a minor victory in his federal election interference case in Washington. The D.C. Court of Appeals temporarily paused Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order that bars him from intimidating witnesses who may be called to testify. The panel will hear arguments on Nov. 20. Trump has vowed to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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