The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, on Friday (Nov 3) expanded the previously imposed partial gag order to include members of the former United States president’s legal team, barring all of them from making public statements about the judge’s communications with his staff.
Eric Trump also took the witness stand again on Friday after his first appearance the day before with his elder brother Donald Jr in the state court in Manhattan, where he said that he relied on accountants and lawyers to verify the accuracy of financial documents which the Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled to be fraudulent.
Judge issues gag order against Trump’s lawyers
In his order, Engoron said since the beginning of his trial “my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages.”
“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,” the judge added.
Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert and Alina Habba, lawyers for the former president, and his adult sons, “are prohibited from making any public statements, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me,” Engoron wrote in the order.
He also warned that failure to abide by this order would result in “serious sanctions”. This comes after the New York judge said that the three lawyers made remarks about his clerk and falsely accused her of “bias” and “improperly influencing” the trial.
Engoron said he has an “unfettered right” to consult with his staff members throughout the trial.
The New York judge had first imposed a gag order against Trump, last month after he shared an of the clerk posing with Senate Majority leader and Democrat Chuck Schumer, and falsely called her Schumer’s “girlfriend.”
Since then Trump has been fined a total of $15,000 for violating the partial gag order twice.
Eric Trump testifies again
In his testimony, on Friday Eric Trump maintained that he had no involvement with documents which the judge had ruled were fraudulently manipulated to inflate the former United States president’s wealth and the worth of the family business.
Similar to his elder brother Donald Jr’s testimony, Eric said that he had relied on outside accountants and lawyers to check financial documents which were used to secure loans and insurance that allowed the company to keep functioning.
“I relied on one of the biggest accounting firms in the country…on a great legal team, and when they gave me comfort that the statement was perfect, I was more than happy to execute it,” said the former president’s second son.
Trump’s second son was also confronted with evidence showing that he had signed off on the accuracy of his father’s financial statements that estimated the value of trophy properties, Trump National Doral golf club in Florida and Seven Springs estate in New York City.
State lawyer Andrew Amer also presented emails where Eric discussed classifying his father’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as a private residence, which would help boost its value as opposed to it just being a club which hosted events.
He also said that he did not recall many of the interactions or had little involvement while he oversaw other aspects of their business. “I pick my phone up at five in the morning and I put it down at midnight. I have thousands of calls,” he said with irritation under questioning by Amer, as per Reuters.
The trial is expected to last until December. Trump himself is due to testify on Monday, followed by his daughter Ivanka on Wednesday, though she is not a defendant in the case.
(With inputs from agencies)
