Judge issues limited gag order in Trump fraud case after he posts on Truth Social

Judge Arthur Engoron on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order in former President Donald Trump's fraud trial after he made a Truth Social post suggesting the chief judicial clerk had some connection to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The now-deleted "Truth" saw the president post an image of the clerk with Schumer and refer to her as "Schumer's girlfriend." The order did not explicitly reference Trump and barred all participants in the case from publicly speaking about members of the judicial staff.

"Personal attacks on members of my court staff are not appropriate and I will not tolerate it under any circumstance," he said, according to The Hill. He further noted that he had ordered the offending post deleted.

The order came as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James's prosecution of Trump over the operations of the Trump Organization. Engoron has already sided with James in summary judgement on the main claim, which asserts that Trump inflated the value of his assets to secure favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums.

That decision has provoked Trump's ire, with the former president insisting the judge's valuation of his properties was erroneous and suggested he should be removed from office.

Trump has further insisted James's case is a political prosecution and part of a broader "witch hunt" designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House. Numerous posts criticizing her remain live on his platform.

"Judge Engoron has been given false and grossly misleading information about my Net Worth by a lying and incompetent Attorney General, such as Mar-a-Lago being worth $18,000,000 when in fact the number would be much closer to 1.5 Billion Dollars, like other properties, including two that were recently sold for numbers many times those that were listed in the Financial Statements," Trump insisted in one Tuesday post. "The N.Y.S. Attorney General, therefore, committed FRAUD for Political and Election Interference reasons. This case should therefore be dismissed!"

The trial is in its second day.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.