Judge issues gag order in Trump fraud trial after ex-president posts about court clerk

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The judge in Donald Trump's multimillion dollar business fraud trial in New York City issued a partial gag order Tuesday after the former president blasted the judge's law clerk in a post on social media.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued the order on the second day of the civil trial after Trump posted a photo Tuesday morning of court clerk Allison Greenfield with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on his Truth Social site. Trump captioned the photo "Schumer's girlfriend," arguing that his case should be dismissed because she is "running this case against me." The post was removed several hours later.

"Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member on my staff," Engoron announced Tuesday afternoon.

"This morning one of the defendants posted on a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients," the judge said.

"Personal attacks on my members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances," Engoron added, while threatening nonspecific "serious sanctions."

The limited gag order bans any emails, posts or public remarks about the judge's staff.

Trump's presidential campaign has criticized Engoron as a "far-left Democrat," in emails and has accused Engoron of political bias.

The former president claims Engoron is trying to hurt him politically since he is the early front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the judge, who he called a "Trump-hater," is trying to "interfere with an election and it's a disgrace."

Trump has also blasted New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling her a "fraud" and said "she should probably be dismissed also."

"She used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor," Trump said of James before Monday's hearing. "She had virtually no following. She came back and she said, 'Well, now I will go back to get Trump again.' And this is what we have. It is a scam and a sham."

In her case, James has accused Trump, his two adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump organization of "staggering fraud" for inflating the values of his real estate properties by more than $2 billion to gain tax benefits and secure favorable loan and insurance terms.

James is seeking $250 million in damages, along with a ban that would keep the Trumps from doing business in New York.

In a pretrial ruling last week, Engoron dissolved Trump's companies that are responsible for running his New York real estate after finding the former president liable for fraud.