Donald Trump is once again prohibited from attacking the law clerk at his ongoing bank fraud trial in New York, now that a four-judge appellate panel has reinstated a gag order that was briefly lifted this month.
The two-page appeals court decision on Thursday wiped out Trump’s lone victory—albeit a minor one—during the trial that threatens to destroy the business tycoon’s real estate empire.
While suffering through a trial against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump has relentlessly complained about the presiding judge’s right hand adviser, law clerk and attorney Allison Greenfield. From the very start of the three-month trial, Justice Arthur F. Engoron slapped a gag order on the former president—one that Trump has repeatedly violated anyway. That fight keeps boiling over, with the judge at one point forcing Trump to make a surprise appearance on the witness stand, then threatening him with jail time. (He decided to issue a $15,000 fine instead.)
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Trump’s attacks have flooded the trial court with MAGA death threats aimed at Engoron and Greenfield, according to sworn documents submitted by court security staff.
On Nov. 16, Trump’s defense lawyers managed to pause that gag order by turning to a single judge in New York’s First Department appellate court with an emergency hearing.
However, that decision was overturned on Thursday when a full panel finally weighed in. Justices Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, Ellen Gesmer, Saliann Scarpulla, and Llinét M. Rosado issued an opinion saying that “the interim relief… is hereby vacated.”
