New York Appeals Court Rejects Donald Trump’s Latest Effort To Sideline Judge’s Gag Order

A New York appeals court denied Donald Trump’s challenge of a gag order in his civil fraud case, ruling that his attorneys did not seek the proper legal remedy for overturning the ban.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the former president’s civil fraud case, restricted him and his attorneys from commenting on his legal staff. That followed attacks by Trump on the judge’s law clerk. Engoron eventually fined Trump $15,000 for violating the order, and extended its reach to his attorneys.

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The appeals court ruled that Trump’s request for a writ of prohibition is “not the proper vehicle for challenging the Gag Order and Contempt Orders.”

“To the extent there may have been appealable issues with respect to any of the procedures the court implemented in imposing the financial sanctions, the proper method of review would be to move to
vacate the Contempt Orders, and then to take an appeal from the denial of those motions,” the judicial panel wrote.

Read the Trump gag order ruling.

Last month, the appeals court reinstated Engoron’s gag order, which had been sidelined as Trump and his legal team challenged it.

New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that Trump and his companies inflated the value of his wealth for the purposes of gaining more favorable loan terms. Trump has denied the charges, but Engoron already has found liable for fraud. The bench trial itself largely is to determine damages.

Last week, a federal appeals court upheld a gag order imposed on Trump in his criminal election conspiracy trial. But the judges narrowed the scope of the order imposed by Judge Tanya Chutkan. That federal criminal trial is scheduled to start in early March, but pre-trial proceedings are on hold as the Supreme Court weighs whether to take up Trump’s challenge of the charges on presidential immunity grounds.

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