The judge presiding over the business fraud trial against former President Donald Trump in New York threatened this Friday with imprison him for violating an order that was imposed on him more than two weeks ago in which he was prohibited from publishing messages on the Internet about court personnel.
The judge, Arthur Engoron, admonished Trump on October 2 with a “gag order” after he posted a photo of his secretary with a personal attack on his Truth Social network; Although the former president deleted that publication from the social network, a copy remained on his political campaign website until last night.
Engoron, who called Trump’s message about his secretary “false and denigrating,” said that this Thursday he learned that it had remained visible on the campaign website for 17 days, and was only removed after the court sent him an email, which he considered “a flagrant violation of the gag order”according to the NBC channel.
“Incendiary lies can and have led to serious physical harm. I will allow the defendant to explain why this should not result in serious penalties or possibly jail time,” he added.
Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, assured that it was an oversight and apologized on behalf of his client, explaining that he removed the publication from Truth Social, but no one took care of removing it from the website. The judge responded that he will take it into account, but the former president is responsible for the “great machinery” under his command.