Trump Isn’t the Only One Getting Hit With Gag Orders

Everything surrounding Trump is tainted. He is a dark person who creates darkness around his orbit. We all know this but people are still hitching their wagons to him, with disastrous results. The poor unfortunate souls who represent him as his lawyers are now in their own trouble, as New York Judge Engoron, who is overseeing the civil fraud case, has issued a limited gag order on his attorneys. 

Last week’s filing concerned three Trump lawyers: Christoper Kise, Clifford Robert, and Alina Habba. Judge Engoron claimed that they had made repeated inappropriate remarks about his Principal Law Clerk. Trump and his cronies frequently (and falsely) cry that their freedom of speech is being trampled. Engoron addressed this, saying, “The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm.”

He noted that since the beginning of the trial, his chambers have had hundreds of voicemails, phone calls, emails, and more, that were threatening and harassing in nature. Trump is dangerous and he (and his lawyers) cannot be allowed to put people in harm’s way by bombarding his rabid followers with insults and lies about them.

The gag order in this situation prohibits these attorneys from making public statements referencing confidential information between the judge and his staff. This seems like common sense yet here we are. Violations of this order will result in “serious sanctions.” Trump has already been hit with those sanctions for violating his own gag order and it hasn’t seemed to make much of a difference at all. The narcissism we have already seen highlights the need for strict enforcement. 

Last month, Trump was fined $5,000 for attacking Engoron’s law clerk on Truth Social and then refusing to take it down from his campaign website after being ordered to do so. A few days later, he was also fined $10,000 for a second gag order violation after he referenced the law clerk in remarks to reporters.

Trump’s obsession with this law clerk is truly bizarre. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for it besides plain old misogyny and it is so weird that he continues to attack her specifically.

Regardless, Trump and his attorneys are willing to keep moving the goalpost of what is considered acceptable. Without real accountability, they will continue to desecrate our democracy.

(featured image: Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)

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