Topline
Former President Donald Trump will once again be prohibited from speaking about court staff in the ongoing civil trial determining whether he and his company fraudulently misstated the value of their assets, as a New York appeals court upheld the gag order Thursday, reinstating it after it was temporarily paused.
Key Facts
New York state Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a gag order in early October on Trump and other parties in the ongoing civil trial, which prohibited them from speaking publicly about court staff after Trump shared a disparaging post about one of the judgeās law clerks, which shared a photo of her with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and referred to her as his āgirlfriend.ā
Trump appealed the order and subsequent punishments he had faced under it, and the appeals court temporarily paused the order on November 16 until it could issue a more lasting ruling, spurring the ex-president to almost immediately start attacking the court clerk again on social media.
The appeals court ruled Thursday it had denied Trumpās motion to throw out the gag order after ādue deliberation,ā putting the gag order back into effect.
The order, signed by a court clerk, does not offer any explanation for the appeals courtās decision.
The courtās order reinstates the gag order against parties in the case, as well as a separate order issued in early November that extended restrictions to attorneys in the case, after Trumpās lawyers raised objections to Engoronās communications in the courtroom with his clerk and accused the clerk of āco-judgingā the case with Engoron.
Big Number
$15,000. Thatās the amount Trump was fined for violating the gag order before the appeals court put it on hold. Engoron levied fines on Trump for two violations of the order, first fining him $5,000 for leaving his initial post about the clerk up on his campaign website, and then imposing an additional $10,000 fine after he commented to reporters about the āpartisanā person sitting alongside the judge. (Trump claimed under oath he was referring to his ex-attorney Michael Cohen, who was testifying in the trial at the time.)
This story is breaking and will be updated.