Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
The judges overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s civil and criminal trials need to send a message to him and his supporters that the gag orders restricting Trump from spewing dangerous invective actually have teeth.
New York state Judge Arthur Engoron has now found Trump violated the court’s gag order twice in less than a week, but has thus far only punished Trump with two fines—the first one was $5,000 and the second one was $10,000—that cannot even be charitably called “slaps on the wrist” for someone with Trump’s wealth.
Make no mistake, Judge Engoron was pissed off at Trump for again trying to attack Engoron’s law clerk. Trump’s previous violation involved failing to remove an image of the clerk from his campaign website that falsely claimed the clerk was a “girlfriend” of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Trump’s lawyers excused it as an “oversight.”