Judge Arthur Engoron ruled on Wednesday that Donald Trump violated the gag order he set earlier this month for the second time.
Calling Trump to the stand, the judge asked Trump if he made comments this morning, quoted in the Associated Press, that were considered to be attacking a court clerk. Trump replied that he did and Engoron ruled it was a violation, reported MSNBC's Lisa Rubin.
“As you can see and everyone can see, first of all my principal law clerk is very close to me,” the judge explained while Trump was on the stand. “You and I can see each other, we’re close...and there’s a barrier between us, would that be at best somewhat ambiguous?”
“Don’t you always refer to Michael Cohen as Michael Cohen?” the judge continued, responding to claim made earlier in the day by Trump's lawyer Chris Kise that the comment had been directed at Cohen.
“No,” Trump claimed.
“Maybe worse,” Kise chimes in.
“Maybe a lot worse,” another Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, quipped.
Engoron excused Trump from the stand.
“As the trier of fact, I find the witness was not credible. He was referring to my law clerk, who is much closer to me,” Engoron said.
He hit Trump with a $10,000 fine.
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The AP reported that Trump, during a mornig recess, had repeated his frequently made attacks on the judge as a "partisan" – but added that he has "a person who is much more partisan sitting alongside of him," quoted The Messenger's Adam Klasfeld earlier on Wednesday.
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The implication was that Trump was talking about the court clerk who ran for a local judgeship and had photos taken with New York lawmakers like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
The gag order issued earlier this month forbids Trump from attacking any member of the court's staff, and it was put in place after Trump suggested that the same clerk was Schumer's girlfriend.
After Trump failed to remove the comments from his campaign website, he was last week deemed in violation of the order and fined $5,000.
Engoron had said after the latest comments were made Wednesday that he was taking the AP's report "under advisement." He returned from lunch to rule that the order had been violated.
“The last time this gag order was violated...I accepted the explanation that it was inadvertent,” he said Wednesday morning. “This most recent statement, assuming the AP is correct, was intentional.
Trump's lawyer, Chris Kise, stepped in to defend Trump, insisting that Trump was talking about Michael Cohen, who appeared on the stand.
