Siding With Trump, Judge Blocks President's Testimony in Civil Case, For Now

A New York State appellate judge on Tuesday dealt an intermediate blow to Mexican plaintiffs suing President Donald Trump over the alleged brutality of security guards employed by the Trump Organization, blocking a lower court's order that the president provide testimony during the case's upcoming trial.

The ruling put on hold a Friday order from the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Doris M. Gonzalez, who upheld a subpoena requiring that the president provide trial testimony related to a 2015 incident in which one of his bodyguards appears to have assaulted a protestor demonstrating outside Trump Tower in Manhattan.

In doing so, the trial judge noted that the president could not supersede the civil justice system, stating in plain terms that the executive branch is not beyond the reach of judicial accountability.

"No government official, including the Executive, is above the law," Gonzalez wrote.

Tuesday's decision temporarily halts Gonzalez's ruling, and puts the forthcoming trial on hold, until a full appellate bench is able to hear arguments from lawyers for both parties. The order also expedited the judicial review process, making the outcome of the case increasingly imminent as both sides lock in for an entrenched debate over the president's liability.

"We are pleased that the Court has agreed to designate this case as expedited and anticipate a speedy resolution of the matter," Benjamin Dictor, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Newsweek in a written statement. "We are confident that the Appellate Division will agree with Hon. Justice Doris Gonzalez that Mr. Trump is subject to the same rules and procedures that govern all defendants in our civil justice system. As the Court has already held in denying defendants' motion for summary judgment, Mr. Trump may indeed be held individually liable for the violence that occurred on Fifth Avenue."

A lawyer for the president did not respond to a request for comment.

The case stems from Trump's unorthodox introduction into the Republican Party primary in 2015, in which he invoked several racist tropes about Mexican immigrants. In the weeks following Trump's announcement, many protesters, including those of Mexican descent, began to gather outside Trump Tower in Manhattan to voice their objections to the use of this sort of language in a prominent political campaign.

During a scuffle with security guards working for the Trump Organization, one protester, Efrain Galicia, appears to have been assaulted by Keith Schiller, who was the company's director of security. The incident was widely reported at the time and captured by television news crews.

"After being attacked by Schiller in front of so many witnesses and television cameras, I am afraid that Trump's security guards will continue to use violence to prevent us from demonstrating on the public sidewalk," Efrain Galicia wrote in his initial complaint. "I am very concerned for my safety and the safety of my friends and fellow activists."