NYC judge in fraud case threatens jailing Trump for defying gag order, but issues $5,000 fine instead

NEW YORK — The Manhattan judge presiding over Donald Trump’s fraud case on Friday asked why he shouldn’t send the former president to jail in light of a derogatory online post he ordered him to delete two weeks ago that remained on the internet through Thursday — but cooled down hours later and meted out a slap on the wrist instead.

State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay a $5,000 fine for violating a limited gag order imposed on the second day of his fraud trial that prohibited him and everyone involved in his case from publicly commenting on his court staff.

The gag order came after Trump published an incendiary post on his social media site Truth Social about Engoron’s chief law clerk, Allison Greenfield, including a picture of her, a false claim she was New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s girlfriend, and a link to her Instagram account.

The Republican presidential front-runner fired off the missive sometime during the morning of Oct. 3 when he was in the courthouse. Upon learning of it, Engoron called Trump to his courtroom on a lunch break and ordered him to immediately take down the “untrue and personally identifying” post about his principal law clerk, who sits with him on the bench and regularly questions the parties.

The post was deleted from Truth Social. However, it remained online on Trump’s campaign website late Thursday — 17 days after the order — and was only gone after the political action committee Meidas Touch reported it was still up, and the judge emailed Trump’s lawyers.

The post was also sent out in an email blast from Trump’s campaign to what Engoron previously estimated to be “millions” of people. Kise said in court the blast was delivered to 25,800 recipients, and only 6,713 people opened it. Kise said the campaign page had 114 million viewers — and 3,701 viewers who clicked on the link emailed to them.

In court Friday, Engoron asked Trump’s lawyers why he shouldn’t follow through on his promise to impose severe sanctions, including financial penalties or “ possibly imprisoning” Trump.

But in a ruling hours after dressing down his attorneys in court, Engoron accepted Trump lawyer Kise’s argument that it was inadvertently left on the site in ordering Trump to pay the minor penalty within 10 days.

The judge said his patience with Trump was shot.

“In the current overheated climate, incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already have, led to serious physical harm, and worse. Donald Trump has received ample warning from this court as to the possible repercussions of violating the gag order,” Engoron wrote.

Trump, 77, has been periodically attending his fraud trial but wasn’t in court Friday. Kise apologized on his client’s behalf.

The former president and his co-defendants have already been found liable on the top fraud claim in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case on trial. In a ruling Engoron issued Sept. 27, he found Trump, his sons, Eric and Don Jr., and top Trump Organization execs Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney fraudulently inflated the value of Trump assets — and thus his net worth — by billions in financial statements submitted to banks and lenders between 2014 and the final year of his presidency to secure loan terms they weren’t entitled to and illegally boost his bottom line.

He also ordered them stripped of certificates required to run a business in New York, which is on pause pending the outcome of their appeal.

Trump and his top execs face more repercussions if Engoron finds them liable on the remaining six claims, with AG James seeking to recover $250 million in “ill-gotten gains” and to permanently bar them from heading a company in New York. They deny all wrongdoing, asserting, among other arguments, that valuing buildings is an art, not a science.

Engoron isn’t the first New York judge to voice concern about the ability of Trump’s words to incite violence.

At his arraignment in April, after a Manhattan jury indicted him for the Stormy Daniels hush money scheme, state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan implored the parties to refrain from making “statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.” Hours later, Trump accused the judge and his daughter of being deep state operatives in nationally televised remarks. Within days, Merchan was receiving death threats.

Trump’s attacks on District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the hush money case, similarly saw Manhattan’s top prosecutor inundated with a deluge of death threats and racist hate mail after Trump’s indictment. His office also dealt with white powder scares.

Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan anonymized the jury in his civil sex abuse case, which E. Jean Carroll won in May, noting Trump’s attacks on judges, law enforcement, “and even individual jurors in other matters.”

Trump is expected to return to the trial next week for his former fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony, anticipated to go forward on Tuesday. They haven’t seen each other in the five years since their famous fallout.

Engoron didn’t mince his words when describing what will happen if the former president disobeys him again.

“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him.”

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