By
Earlier on Friday, I explained how Donald Trump hadn’t violated his New York gag order — yet. As if on cue, Judge Arthur Engoron fined the former president $5,000 hours later for doing so.
Engoron entered the limited gag order in the civil fraud trial earlier this month after Trump posted to his social media about the judge’s clerk. That led the judge to bar the parties (but really, Trump) from posting or publicly speaking about the judge’s staff. That’s why Trump’s recent posting about his adversary in the case, New York Attorney General Letitia James, wouldn’t violate the order.
But on Friday, Engoron said Trump ran afoul of the order by leaving the offending post, which he had taken down from his social media, up on his campaign website. Engoron said it was up until Thursday and only taken down in response to an email from the court.
"This is a blatant violation of the gag order," Engoron told Trump's legal team in court on Friday. "I made it clear [that] failure to comply will result in serious sanctions. ... I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could possibly imprison him.”
An attorney for Trump claimed the post was inadvertently left up. "It is unfortunate and I apologize on behalf of my client," the lawyer said.
In leveling what the judge called a “nominal” fine, Engoron cited the civil defendant’s claim of accident and the fact that it was Trump's first violation, in his order Friday afternoon. He warned, however, that future violations, whether intentional or not, are subject to far more severe sanctions, including imprisonment.
So even if this fine is relatively paltry, it has the merit of being a consequence for Trump. And going forward, the judge might not hesitate the lock him up.
Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.