A New York appeals court judge on Thursday temporarily suspended gag orders against Donald Trump, which They prohibited the former president from attacking the chief legal assistant of the judge presiding over the $250 million civil fraud trial.
“Taking into account the constitutional and statutory rights in question, “a provisional suspension is granted,” wrote Associate Justice David Friedman of the Appellate Division of the First Department in a order.
One part of the ruling notes that Trump’s lawyers asked to overturn “two unconstitutional gag orders,” citing the defense’s formulation of their request.
Friedman’s order also suspended a gag order that prohibited lawyers involved in the trial from commenting on “confidential communications” between trial judge Arthur Engoron and his staff.
Why was it imposed?
The gag order had been imposed on Trump on October 3, 2023, after the former president defamed Allison Greenfield, the clerk of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
The ex-president Trump called the employee “girlfriend” of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democratic legislator from New York. Trump deleted the post after Engoron ordered him to remove it as “false” and “disparaging.”
Subsequently, Engoron claimed that Trump violated the gag order twice andand imposed two fines totaling $15,000.
In the face of continued complaints from the former president’s lawyers, Engoron also imposed a gag order on them to “make public statements, in or out of court, that refer to confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me.”
Trump insisted
This did not stop Trump from attacking Greenfield again.
“His ridiculous and unconstitutional silence order, which does not allow me to defend myself against him and his Trump hating secretary, politically biased and out of control, that is sinking him and his Court to new levels of LOW is a disgrace,” Trump wrote.
On Wednesday, the former president’s lawyers had filed a lawsuit against Egordon over the gag orders. This is under the argument that they infringe freedom of expression.
“This constitutional protection is at its peak when the speech in question is central political speech, delivered by the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nominationregarding perceived partisanship and bias in a trial in which he is subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and the threat of a ban on his legal business activities in the state,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
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2023-11-17 02:47:00
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