Trump suffers second legal loss in one day in battle against gag orders

Donald Trump suffered his second legal loss in one day as he fights gag orders in his New York fraud case.

An appellate court on Thursday denied his attempt to overturn orders barring him from attacking the law clerk of New York justice Arthur Engoron, and later the same day issued a separate ruling denying him leave to appeal a decision reinstating the orders to the state's highest court, reported The Messenger.

"That branch of the motion for expedited resolution is denied as moot," the court ruled.

The appeals court noted in its earlier four-page denial that the "the gravity of potential harm is small, given that the Gag Order is narrow, limited to prohibiting solely statements regarding the court’s staff."

Engoron justified the orders as necessary to protect the safety of his staff after Trump attacked his clerk on Truth Social, which court security officers said had resulted in hundreds of harassing, threatening, and antisemitic messages.