THE New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the former US president US$5,000 on Friday (Oct 20) for not complying with a partial gag order, and threatened him with possible jail time for future violations.
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the 77-year-old Trump to pay the fine within the next 10 days to the New York Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.
“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions,” Engoron said in a court filing.
“(These) may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him pursuant to New York Judiciary Law,” the judge added.
Engoron slapped a limited gag order on the former president on Oct 3 after he insulted the judge’s principal law clerk in a social media post on his Truth Social platform.
The offending post was removed from Truth Social the same day, but the judge complained in his filing on Friday that it remained on a Trump 2024 campaign website for 17 days, until the court asked on Thursday that it be taken down.

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