The Manhattan judge presiding over Donald Trump’s fraud trial questioned Thursday whether one of the former president’s lawyers has frequently singled out the jurist’s chief law clerk out of misogyny.
State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron threatened to expand a gag order barring the parties from commenting on his court staff in response to attorney Chris Kise’s latest broadside against his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield.
“She’s a civil servant. She’s doing what I ask her to do, which is help me process cases and decide them correctly,” Engoron said.
The judge wondered whether the former Florida solicitor general’s animosity ran deeper than the case at hand.
“Sometimes I think there may be a bit of misogyny in the fact that you keep referring to my female principal law clerk. If there is any further reference to anyone on my staff — and I don’t have a big staff, I have about three people — I will consider expanding the gag order to include the attorneys including yourself.”
Engoron’s observations came after Kise once again took a swipe at Greenfield, who sits with Engoron on the bench and plays an active role advising him in the complex financial fraud case.
“I’ll wait again to get the note that you have from Ms. Greenfield,” Kise said. “You may have a question for me. Maybe it is about dinner.”
The defense lawyer was referencing notes Greenfield often passes the judge during testimony. The judge pointed out Trump’s lawyers do the same thing.
Kise vehemently objected to Engoron’s comments, citing the First Amendment and arguing he had a right to make a record of “bias in the proceeding that my client perceives.”
“I’m not a misogynist. I have — I’m very happily married and I have a 17-year-old daughter, so I really have no issues there and so I reject that squarely,” he fumed.
Engoron said his arguments didn’t hold water.
“There is no First Amendment value that I can see referring to her — particularly when making things up, and that’s not you, that’s somebody else,” Engoron said, presumably referring to Trump.
“Weighing the First Amendment right against the safety of my staff, we know what’s going on out there in the world, I think your points are not well-taken about that,” the judge added.
AP Photo/Brittainy Newman
Donald Trump’s attorney Chris Kise arrive at Brooklyn Federal Court on Sept. 20. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)
The lawyer’s offhand remarks haven’t been restricted to Greenfield, whom Trump’s lawyers have called a “secretary.” Earlier in the trial, he questioned the intelligence of Colleen Faherty, a lawyer for New York Attorney General Tish James.
Engoron imposed a narrow gag order on the second day of the civil fraud trial upon learning of an inflammatory post about Greenfield published to Trump’s Truth Social while the former president was inside the courthouse.
In the post, Trump wrote Greenfield was “running this case against me” and included a link to her Instagram account. He boosted a false claim she was dating Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat with whom she’d been photographed at an event. The senator and Greenfield say they don’t know each other personally.
Seventeen days after the gag order — when Engoron ordered Trump to delete the post immediately — the judge learned it remained on Trump’s campaign website and fined him $5,000.
Five days later, when Trump was in court for his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s testimony, the judge fined Trump an additional $10,000 for disparaging “a person who is very partisan who is sitting alongside” Engoron.
That fine came after Engoron summoned Trump to the stand unexpectedly to question him about his inflammatory out-of-court commentary. After hearing three minutes of testimony, he determined he wasn’t telling the truth.
Trump’s diatribes against officials have concerned multiple judges overseeing his myriad cases. He’s under another gag order in his D.C. case.
In New York, the judge presiding over his civil sex abuse case anonymized the jury, citing reports about his attacks on judges, law enforcement, and “even individual jurors in other matters.” After he was indicted in the hush money case and targeted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the DA was inundated with death threats and racist hate mail.
Trump is expected to return to the stand on Monday. Engoron has heard from Don Jr. and Eric and is expected to hear testimony from daughter Ivanka on Nov. 8.
AG Tish James’ case alleges Trump, his oldest sons, and former executives Weisselberg and controller Jeff McConney plotted to balloon the value of Trump’s assets by billions to illegally profit in business deals from 2011 and throughout his presidency.
Engoron determined the financial statements were fraudulent before the trial started based on uncontested evidence. He’s considering the AG’s remaining six claims at the case on trial.
Trump, his sons and executives deny wrongdoing.