A New York judge has fined former President Donald Trump $5,000 on Friday over a disparaging post about a court staffer on his campaign website. This development comes after a gag order was imposed on Trump, prohibiting him from making supposedly incendiary statements about individuals involved in the civil fraud trial.
The Judge also stated that if Trump committed any further infractions he would be held in contempt, which could result in jail time.
Former president Donald Trump has been fined $5k for a social media post that disparaged a court worker in his New York civil case. The post remained on the campaign website even after being deleted by the judge.
Although Judge Arthur Engoron has not held Trump in contempt yet, he has reserved the right to do so — and jail Trump for 2024 if he violates a limited order prohibiting participants in the case from making personal attacks on court staff.
Engoron wrote in his written decision that this “first-time violation” was not a “second warning”. Instead, it was a “few dollars”. Trump’s lawyers said that the site retained the post by mistake.
Engoron wrote in a two-page paper: “Make no mistakes, future violations of the law will be subjected to sanctions that are much more severe.” This could include increased financial penalties or Donald Trump being found in contempt of court. ”
JUST IN: Judge Engoron has fined Trump $5,000 for violating the gag order by failing to remove an incendiary post about Engoron’s clerk from his campaign website.
He warns that he could jail Trump for future violations. https://t.co/K0smsq0HRg pic.twitter.com/uvphRHagXi
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 20, 2023
Fulton County, Georgia, has also issued an Order of Silence on Trump. This was ostensibly to protect the integrity and fairness in the court proceedings. I, along with others, have claimed that this order is nothing more than a clever attempt to silence Trump as much as he can while he runs for the presidency. Trump’s lawyers have said that they plan to appeal the orders.
Trump’s attorneys removed the comment on social media, saying that it was an oversight of $5,000 to leave the comments up.
Christopher Kise – a Trump attorney – blamed the “very large machine” of Trump’s White House campaign earlier for allowing this posting to remain online after Trump had deleted it on his own. Engoron said it was an unintentional error.
Judge Engoron did not accept this. After speaking with the lawyers of the former President, he said, “I wanted it to be clear, that Donald Trump is still responsible for large machinery, even if that machinery is large.”
The judge also argued that “incendiary fact can and has in some cases caused serious bodily injury and worse.”
This is not the first time that a judge has demanded money from Trump. Last year, he fined the former president $110,000 for not responding quickly enough.
It’s hard to deny that this is an attack on Trump, the former president who is running for the presidency in 2024. In order to influence the outcome of the election in 2024, the court is doing all it can to prevent him from criticizing those who are prosecuting him. The judge’s threat of jailing him for future offenses is one example of what people will do to stop Trump from getting a second term.
