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Donald Trump's estranged niece mocked the former president in a social media post after his trial judge in the New York fraud case threatened him with jail time on Friday.
The remarks from Judge Arthur Engoron were delivered as he reprimanded Trump for breaking a limited gag order imposed toward the beginning of the civil trial. Earlier this month, Trump shared a post from X, formerly Twitter, on his Truth Social network, asking, "Why is Judge Engoron's Principal Law Clerk, Allison R. Greenfield, palling around with Chuck Schumer?" Included in the post was a link to Greenfield's personal Instagram page.
The gag order was subsequently put into place, with Engoron citing the "untrue disparaging and personally identifying post about my principal law clerk."
The latest admonishment from the judge occurred after the court realized that Trump's re-post that was immediately taken off of Truth Social following the gag order was still on the former president's website, and had been for the last 17 days. The webpage was taken down late Thursday night, but Engoron said the removal only happened in response to an email from the court.
The ex-president's niece, Mary Trump, a vocal critic of her uncle, shared a video of Trump's reaction to Engoron threatening to imprison him, along with saying: "Hey, look — He's pouting harder!" followed by a smiley face with sunglasses.
In a follow-up post, Mary Trump said: "I'm furious that Donald is allowed to keep breaking rule after rule ... Let's get this mother-f***** incarcerated already. I have a plan." However, she did not disclose her aforementioned plan.
Engoron delivered his warning to Trump in a serious tone on Friday, telling him: "In the current overheated climate, incendiary comments can and in some cases already has, led to serious physical harm and worse. I will now allow the defendants to explain why this blatant violation of the gag order would not result in serious sanctions, including financial sanctions and/or possibly imprisoning him."
One of Trump's lawyers, Christopher Kise, immediately apologized, blaming the former president's massive "campaign machinery" for forgetting to take down the webpage. "There was no intention to evade or circumvent or ignore the order. I assure you that. I just know that this is a very large machine and this is one of the reasons, frankly, I don't have social media," Kise said. "But that's been taken down. And we don't have any other ... there were no subsequent postings."
Engoron replied: "I will take that under advisement, but ... Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine."
Trump risks losing $250 million if Engoron sides with prosecutors, as a jury was not requested for this trial. The former president, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and executives within The Trump Organization stand accused of falsely inflating Trump's net worth to get more favorable loan terms. Trump has maintained his innocence, saying that "there was no crime."
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's office via online form for comment on Friday.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more