Latest gag order challenge claims Trump hasn't 'any control' over death threats

Donald Trump’s lawyers demanded Monday that gag orders against him be lifted permanently, arguing there is no evidence the former president has any control over those sending hundreds of violent threats to New York court staff, legal records show.

Attorney Clifford Robert filed his motion in New York’s Appellate Division court days after Justice Arthur Engoron revealed he’d received “serious and credible” threats after Trump violated a gag order in his civil fraud trial, court records show.

“Respondents’ sole cognizable justification for the Gag Orders is that an unknown third party may react in a hostile or offensive manner to Petitioners’ speech,” Roberts wrote in a 1,900-page filing.

“This should be rejected. Since before the trial began and continuing thereafter, certain individuals, to whom there is no indication Petitioners have any connection or exercise any control, have engaged in behavior that Petitioners do not condone.”

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Trump has twice been fined under Engoron’s gag order, which is currently suspended and under review, after he publicly criticized Engoron’s clerk, notes The Messenger which was the first to report Monday's filing.

The gag order allows Trump to criticize both Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the $250 million civil suit against Trump and his sons, but not Engoron's staff.

In a sworn affirmation filed last week, Engoron said he and his clerk have received hundreds of threats since the trial began.

Among them was one that stated, "You should be assassinated.”