(UnitedHeadlines.com) – On Dec. 4, New York’s Court of Appeals denied former President Donald Trump’s request to fast-track his appeal of a gag order imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron in Trump’s $250 million civil fraud trial.
Trump’s attorneys filed the request Dec. 4. The request sought to have the New York Court of Appeals grant an expedited review of Trump’s request to vacate a panel of state appellate court judges ruling upholding a gag order imposed on Trump.
Trump’s attorney Clifford Robert argued Trump suffers “irreparable injury daily.” Robert added that due to the gag order, Trump is being silenced on issues “implicating the appearance of bias and impropriety on the bench.”
Engoron imposed the gag order on the second day of the trial, Oct. 3, after Trump posted on social media about the judge’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Court officials say the post resulted in hundreds of threats and anti-Semitic comments directed at the court and its officers.
In November, the appeals court temporarily lifted the gag order and sanctions prohibiting Trump from attacking Engoron’s law clerk. The gag order was reinstated Nov. 30. After the reinstatement of the gag order, Engoron stated he would “enforce the gag orders rigorously and vigorously.”
Trump is scheduled to take the stand Dec. 11 in his own defense. His attorneys had sought to have the gag order lifted before then.
The case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump and his family of defrauding banks and investors by vastly inflating the values of their properties. She is seeking a minimum of $250 million in restitution.
During the first phase of the trial in September, Engoron granted a partial summary judgment in the case to James after he ruled that Trump had fraudulently inflated the values of his real estate properties.
Both parties face a noon deadline on Jan. 5 to file their briefs. A date of Jan. 11 is set for closing arguments in the trial.
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