Appeals court again upholds Trump gag order
NEW YORK >> A New York appeals court has again upheld a gag order that bars Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel in his civil fraud trial, ruling Thursday that the former president's lawyers used the wrong legal mechanism to fight the restriction.
A four-judge panel in the state's mid-level appellate court ruled Thursday that Trump's lawyers erred by suing trial Judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed the gag order in October after Trump disparaged his law clerk. Instead, the appellate judges wrote, Trump's lawyers should've followed the normal appeals process by asking Engoron to reverse the gag order and then, if denied, fighting that decision in a higher court.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said the decision denies his client “the only path available to expedited relief and places his fundamental constitutional rights in a procedural purgatory.”
“We filed the petition because the ordinary appellate process is essentially pointless in this context as it cannot possibly be completed in time to reverse the ongoing harm,” Kise said.
The appeals court ruling came a day after testimony wrapped in the 2½-month trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit. Closing arguments are scheduled for Jan. 11 in the case, which threatens Trump's real estate empire.
Trump's lawyers sued Engoron last month, objecting to the gag order as an abuse of power. They filed the lawsuit under a state law known as Article 78, which allows lawsuits over some judicial decisions.
The four-judge panel ruled that Trump's gag order can't be challenged that way, citing a prior ruling from the state's highest court that characterized such lawsuits as an “extraordinary remedy.”
Engoron imposed the gag order Oct. 3 after Trump posted a derogatory comment about the judge's law clerk to social media. The post, which included a baseless allegation about the clerk's personal life, came on the second day of the trial.
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