Former President

Donald

Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court official in his New York civil fraud case remained on his campaign website for weeks after a judge ordered it removed.

Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt for now, but reserved the right to do so and may even jail the 2024 Republican front-runner if he again violates a limited gag order that bars people participating in the case from personal attacks on court staff.

Engoron said in a written ruling that he is “well past the warning stage” but imposed only a nominal fine on Trump because it was a first offense and Trump’s lawyers said the website’s holding of the mail had been unintentional.

Make no mistake: Future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to much more severe sanctions, including potentially increased financial penalties, contempt of court and possibly even jailing Donald Trump, Engoron wrote in a two-page order. .

A campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise previously blamed the very big machine of Trump’s White House campaign for allowing the social media post to remain on the website, calling it an unintentional mistake. Trump had complied with Engoron’s order by removing the post from social media, Kise said. The message was removed from the website late Thursday after Engoron reported it to Trump’s lawyers.

Trump was not in court Friday. He had attended the trial on Tuesday and Wednesday after attending the first three days in early October. Off court this week, he focused his animosity on Engoron and New York

Attorney General Aty. Gene.

Letitia James, whose fraud case is being decided at the civil trial. Neither falls under Engoron’s gag order.

However, Engoron said the blame will ultimately go to Trump, even though it was someone from his campaign who failed to remove the offending post.

I want to be clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the big machine, even if it is a big machine, Engoron said after discussing the case with Trump’s lawyers before testimony resumed Friday morning.

Engoron issued a limited silence order in October. 3, which barred all participants in the case from defaming court staff after Trump publicly defamed the judge’s chief clerk, Allison Greenfield, in what Engoron deemed a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying “Truth Social post.” The judge ordered Trump to remove the post, which he did, and warned of serious sanctions for violations.

The post included a photo of Greenfield posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a public event. Trump wrote that it was a shame that Greenfield worked with Engoron on the case.

Before Trump removed the message from his Truth Social platform as ordered, his campaign copied the message in an email blast. That email, with the subject ICYMI, was automatically archived on Trump’s website, Kise said.

The email was sent to about 25,800 recipients on the campaign’s media list and opened by about 6,700 of them, Kise told Engoron after obtaining the statistics during the morning break. In total, only 3,700 people viewed the message on Trump’s campaign website, the lawyer said.

What happened really seems unintentional, Kise said. The attorney pleaded ignorance of the technological complexities involved in amplifying Trump’s social media posts and public statements, calling the archiving “an unfortunate part of the campaign process.”

New York law allows judges to impose fines or prison sentences as punishment for contempt. Last year, Engoron found Trump in contempt and fined him $110,000 for being slow to respond to a subpoena in the investigation that led to the lawsuit.

The James lawsuit accuses Trump and his company of duping banks and insurers by giving them grossly inflated statements about Trump’s net worth and asset values. Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the lawsuit includes remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying company records.

Trump denies wrongdoing, arguing that a disclaimer on his financial statements absolves him of any debt and that some of his assets are worth far more than what the documents show. He calls the trial a sham, a scam and a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.

The contempt discussion created unexpected drama on a sleepy Friday ahead of what will be a busy week at the trial in Manhattan. Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, now a key state witness, said he will likely take the witness stand on Tuesday after posting this week due to a health issue.

Trump and his two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are expected to testify in a few weeks. His daughter Ivanka Trump is fighting a subpoena for her testimony. Engoron scheduled a hearing on that dispute next week.

Ivanka Trump was initially a defendant, but an appeals court removed her from the case in June after finding that the claims against her fell outside the statute of limitations. Her attorney argued in court papers Thursday that state attorneys did not properly execute her subpoena and that she should not be forced to testify because she is not a party to the case and lives outside the New York court’s jurisdiction.

James’ office never questioned Ivanka Trump during a deposition and is now effectively trying to force her back into the case, her attorney, Bennet Moskowitz, wrote.