Judge Engoron is back monitoring Donald Trump’s speech. He questions whether Donald Trump violated the gag order, NBC News reports. The last time Donald Trump violated it by mistake, the judge threatened him with prison. This time he’s threatening “severe sanctions.”
The gag order prevents Donald Trump from mentioning Engoron’s staff.
During the mid-morning break, Trump told reporters that Engoron is “a very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.” The judge interpreted it as a reference to his law clerk, who is very partisan.
Engoron said Trump had previously “made defamatory, disparaging, untrue comments about my law clerk” on social media, which led to the order barring the former president from talking about the judge’s court staff.
That post was a joke that suggested that the law clerk was Chuck Schumer’s girlfriend. She is a friend of the Senate Majority Leader. The post is scrubbed as ordered.
“Why should there not be severe sanctions for disobeying a clear court order?” Engoron asked attorney Kise today.
Kise said he’d asked Trump about the remark and was told the former president was referring to Cohen, not the judge’s law clerk. The judge was skeptical of the defense, noting the person sitting next to him is the clerk and that there’s a barrier between him and Cohen.
“Language sometimes is not clear, but this is clear to me,” he said, adding he’d take the matter “under advisement.” The trial then resumed, with Cohen going back on the stand to do what he does best – lie. He is a convicted liar, you know.
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