Threats to Judge Engoron and clerk don’t justify gag order, Trump’s lawyers argue

In a Monday appeals court filing, lawyers for former President Donald Trump argue that hundreds of recent threats made against Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk do not justify keeping a gag order in place in the New York financial fraud trial of Trump, his adult sons and their family business. While Trump already faces 91 felony charges, he could yet see even more pending the results of ongoing state investigations in at least four states into the fake elector scheme to keep him in power. Here is the latest legal maneuvering in the criminal and civil cases facing the man seeking to become the next president.

New York financial fraud

Trump lawyers: Threats to judge and his clerk don’t justify gag order

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, clerk Allison Greenfield, New York Attorney General Letitia James

• On Monday, lawyers for Trump said in a court filing that threats made toward Engoron and Greenfield by Trump’s supporters did not justify keeping a gag order put in place by the judge of the financial fraud trial, CNN reported.

• “At base, the disturbing behavior engaged in by anonymous, third-party actors towards the judge and Principal Law Clerk publicly presiding over an extremely polarizing and high-profile trial merits appropriate security measures,” the filing stated. “However, it does not justify the wholesale abrogation of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights in a proceeding of immense stakes to Petitioners, which has been compromised by the introduction of partisan bias on the bench.”

• Engoron’s gag order, which the appeals court has paused until it issues a final ruling on the matter, was designed to prevent Trump from attacking the judge’s staff.

• Since the October start of the trial, Engoron and Greenfield have been deluged with threats that have been “serious and credible,” James’s office told the court, with hundreds coming in the past week alone.

• Engoron’s clerk receives dozens of messages each day on her personal cellphone, on social media platforms and at her personal email addresses, court papers filed by Engoron’s lawyers stated, about half of them expressing antisemitic views.

Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly criticized Engoron and Greenfield, which James has characterized as a form of intimidation that endangers their safety. Trump’s attorneys counter that leaving the gag order in place is a violation of the former president’s First Amendment rights.

Jan. 6 election interference

More states could file charges stemming from ‘fake elector’ plot to keep Trump in power

Key players: Pro-Trump lawyers John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still, Georgia GOP official Kathleen Latham, Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall

• State attorneys general in at least four states are continuing to investigate whether to bring charges stemming from the “fake elector” plot to keep Trump in power following his loss in the 2020 election, The Hill reported.

• Officials in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania are among those weighing whether to charge more people with crimes in the scheme pushed by Eastman for states to certify an alternate slate of electors to try to block Joe Biden’s victory.

• In Georgia, Eastman, Shafer, Still and Latham have all been charged with felonies stemming from those efforts. Chesebro, one of the architects of the fake elector plan, has already pleaded guilty and may yet face charges in other states, as have Ellis, Powell and Hall.

• In Michigan, 16 people who posed as “duly elected and qualified electors” are already facing charges.

Why it matters: Trump and his allies held meetings with officials in multiple states in their efforts to overturn his 2020 losses in key swing states. Already charged with 91 felonies heading into the 2024 Republican primary, he could yet be hit with even more.

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