Oct. 25 (UPI) — The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil trial suggested Wednesday the former president for a second time violated a gag order that bars him from talking about court staff.
Judge Arthur Engoron, citing news reports, said Trump told reporters the judge is a “very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even more partisan than he is.”
Engoron said Trump’s comments suggested he was speaking about a law clerk. Trump’s attorney Chris Kise said Trump was referring to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was in the witness box at the time.
“It’s easy for the public or anyone to know who that is,” Engoron said, suggesting Trump was commenting about his law clerk. “I’m very protective of my staff, and I believe I should be. I don’t want anybody killed.”
Engoron imposed the gag order in early October barring Trump from comments about court staff. On Oct. 20, Trump was fined $5,000 for violating the order.
The comments come during the second day of a $250 million lawsuit that alleges Trump and his co-defendants repeatedly committed fraud by inflating assets on financial statements to get better terms on commercial real estate loans and insurance policies.
