Donald Trump refused to take down a post attacking the law clerk of the judge overseeing his bank fraud trial in New York—blatantly violating the court’s gag order—and lawyers on both sides have just been notified that hell is nigh.
The New York Attorney General’s Office and the former president’s defense lawyers were told late Thursday that the issue will come up Friday morning in court, according to a source with knowledge of those discussions.
At issue is the way that Trump, who’s been visibly seething in court for weeks now over the prospect of losing his real estate empire, keeps ramping up his aggression toward Justice Arthur F. Engoron and his clerk, attorney Allison Greenfield.
ADVERTISEMENT
On just his second day of trial, Trump took an unprecedented move that would get any other defendant thrown into a cell: He targeted the judge’s own staff by spreading a lie—and directing his MAGA battalion to her personal Instagram page.
He posted the same note on his political website and his Truth Social network, sharing a MAGA-aligned Twitter user’s post asking, “Why is Judge Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk, Allison R. Greenfield, palling around with Chuck Schumer?” But Trump went further, linking to Greenfield’s social media photos and drawing the attention of his huge fan base against her.
That very same day, the judge—clearly disturbed by the maneuver—spoke in a solemn tone as he warned Trump to never do it again. He also ordered the real estate tycoon to take down the spiteful attack.
While Trump’s team immediately deleted the Truth Social post, they never bothered to take down the one on the former president’s website, DonaldJTrump.com. The court apparently didn’t notice that until Ron Filipkowski at the liberal website MeidasTouch wrote about it on Thursday, sparking a notification to attorneys on both sides.
A spokeswoman for the AG’s office declined to provide a comment. Trump’s lead attorney, Alina Habba, did not respond to a request for comment. The post was taken down late Thursday night. The webpage is now blank with a 404 error on display that reads, “The page you were looking for does not exist.”
Engoron has already warned Trump’s lawyers that “failure to abide” by his gag order “will result in serious sanctions.” Friday morning could be that showdown.
