Judge in Trump’s New York Fraud Trial Threatens to Throw Him in Jail for Breaking a Gag Order

Former President Donald Trump received harsh criticism from the presiding judge in his civil fraud trial for failing to delete a disparaging tweet about the court's clerk from Trump's campaign website. According to the reports, when Judge Arthur Engoron learned that Trump had disobeyed the injunction, he became enraged and suggested jail time for the ex-president. Apart from this, the former president was also charged with a $5,000 fine and this is the first time Trump has paid a price for disobeying a judge's ruling.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a fraud complaint against President Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and some of its senior executives, alleging that they inflated the worth of their assets to get tax breaks and more favorable loan conditions. Despite Engoron's finding that the defendants are responsible for fraud and ordering the dissolution of their New York company registrations, Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing. James, who is suing for $250 million in damages and an injunction against the defendants doing business in New York, has filed six more claims that will be resolved at trial.

According to Engoron, Trump made "an untrue and disparaging post about my clerk" on his social media account, and "he said he did take it down". The Judge further added, "Despite this order, last night I learned the offending post was never removed from a website. This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear [that] failure to comply will result in serious sanctions. Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm. I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could imprison him." Engoron advised Trump not to repeat the infraction in his verdict: "Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him."

The court ruled last month that Trump and his business "repeatedly" broke state fraud laws. All of the defendants, including Trump, have claimed they did nothing illegal. Engoron wrote, "The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business" and revoked their certificates. Within 10 days, he demanded that they propose independent receivers to oversee the winding down of the dissolved LLCs. On the other hand Attorney Alina Habba, representing Trump's Save America PAC, said the verdict was "fundamentally flawed at every level". The statement read, "It is important to remember that the Trump Organization is an American success story. The fact that this Court summarily found that there is no question of fact, finding in part that Mar-a-Lago is worth approximately $20 million and issue a decision of this magnitude is an affront to our legal system." Judging by the evidence presented, the court concluded that Trump and the firm had significantly inflated the estimated value of several properties.