Donald Trump Fined $10,000 for Violating Gag Order

Donald Trump was fined $10,000 for violating a limited gag order in his civil fraud trial. It was the second time in less than a week that Trump was penalized for his out-of-court comments.

Former President Donald Trump was called to the witness stand and fined $10,000 on Wednesday after a judge concluded that he had violated a limited gag order in his civil fraud trial. It was the second time in less than a week that Trump was penalized for his out-of-court comments.

Trump's Fine and Testimony

Before imposing the latest fine, Judge Arthur Engoron summoned Trump from the defense table to testify about his comment to reporters hours earlier about "a person who's very partisan sitting alongside" the judge. Trump and his lawyers said that comment was about witness Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer, and not about the clerk. Trump told the judge from the witness stand that his remark about partisans was aimed at "you and Cohen."

However, Trump did not conceal his frustration with the clerk. "I think she's very biased against us, I think we've made that clear," Trump said. Engoron on Oct. 3 had ordered all participants in the trial not to comment publicly about his staff, a restriction issued after a Trump social media post maligning the clerk. The judge had ordered Trump to take down that post and Trump did, which the former president noted in court Wednesday. But that post had lingered on his campaign website for weeks, prompting a $5,000 fine for Trump last Friday.

Cohen's Testimony

Earlier Wednesday, Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand as the defense team tried to undermine the credibility and question the motives of his onetime personal attorney turned adversary. With Trump at the defense table, his lawyer Alina Habba confronted Cohen with comments he had made praising Trump, before turning on him when Cohen's legal problems started in 2018.

Habba tried to suggest that Cohen had angled unsuccessfully for a job in Trump's White House — Cohen insisted he never sought one — and asked whether he had "significant animosity toward Trump. "Do I have animosity toward him? Yes I do," Cohen replied. "You have made a career out of publicly attacking President Trump, haven't you?" Habba asked. After a long pause, Cohen said, "Yes."

Cohen's Role in the Case

Cohen worked as Trump's lawyer and fixer for many years, before Cohen's 2018 federal prosecution, guilty pleas, and prison sentence for tax evasion, making false statements on a bank loan application, lying to Congress, and making illegal contributions to Trump's campaign. The contributions were in the form of payouts to women who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump, who said the women's stories were false.

Cohen is now a key witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James civil case against Trump. James alleges that Trump habitually exaggerated the value of his real estate holdings on financial documents that helped him get loans and insurance and make deals. Trump denies any wrongdoing and says James, a Democrat, is targeting the leading Republican presidential candidate in 2024 for partisan reasons.

Trump's Response

Outside court, Trump said the trial was "very unfair" and a "pure political witch hunt." Nonetheless, he said, "We're happy with the way it's going." "We have the facts on our side," Trump said. He's expected to testify later in the trial but meanwhile has voluntarily attended several days of the proceedings. Cohen is also expected to be an important prosecution witness in a criminal trial scheduled for next spring in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records. That case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington.