Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys addressed threats against Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk on Monday, denying responsibility.
The former president’s attorneys told a New York state appeals court that he is not responsible for what the courts called a “deluge” of threats against Engoron and his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. The threats have occurred since the start of the trial in October. The “deluge” was mentioned in a court filing Wednesday that aimed to reinstate the limited gag order against Trump.
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“At base, the disturbing behavior engaged in by anonymous, third-party actors towards the judge and Principal Law Clerk publicly presiding over an extremely polarizing and high-profile trial merits appropriate security measures,” the latest filing states.
“However, it does not justify the wholesale abrogation of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights in a proceeding of immense stakes to Petitioners, which has been compromised by the introduction of partisan bias on the bench,” the filing continues.
Earlier in November, a New York appellate judge temporarily lifted the limited gag order put in place by Engoron on Oct. 3 against Trump in his $250 million civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
In a sworn affirmation last week from a court security official, the court argued the gag order should remain in effect due to hundreds of threats that are “considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative.”
Trump posted the law clerk to his social media, which the court claimed subjected her to “hundreds of threatening, harassing, disparaging and antisemitic messages.”
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Trump’s lawyers encouraged the court to keep blocking the gag order in his civil fraud trial and said, “While vile and reprehensible,” they “do not constitute a clear and present danger of imminent harm as required under established precedent.”
His lawyers accused the clerk of political bias against Trump, writing in the latest filing, “The evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming.” Last month, Trump’s lawyers demanded a mistrial over similar allegations, claiming Greenfield, a Democrat, was “co-judging” the case. A judge denied Trump’s motion for a mistrial.
