Judge Arthur Engoron on Friday ordered that the gag order he had imposed on Donald Trump in the civil fraud case be expanded to Trump’s attorneys.
In his order, Engoron wrote:
Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages. The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm.
Engoron has already fined Trump twice for violating his gag order, first for $5,000 and then for $10,000. He said today that violating the order again will result in “serious consequences.”
Prior to the gag order’s expansion, even the liberal ACLU had said that the gag order violates Trump’s freedom of speech.
