As per usual, Donald Trump just can’t shut up—and it’s causing him, and everybody around him, major problems.
In the midst of one of the former President’s many criminal cases, a judge recently had to issue a gag order after Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to verbally berate a member of the judge’s own staff, bizarrely claiming she was Chuck Schumer’s “girlfriend.”
Trump is currently the subject of four separate criminal indictments and is embroiled in numerous other legal cases. His solution to the legal swamp he finds himself in has largely been to yap at his loyal political base via poorly worded screeds in an attempt to spin his endless problems into 2024 presidential campaign gold. On Tuesday, Trump did this once again, posting to Truth Social an unhinged attack on one of the court clerks connected to a $250 million civil fraud case that he’s the subject of. The woman in question, Allison R. Greenfield, is a longtime clerk in the New York City judicial office where the case is based.
Trump posted a picture of Greenfield to Truth Social in which the clerk is pictured smiling with Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader of the U.S. Senate (with whom Trump is not exactly on the friendliest of terms). Trump seemed to imply there was some sort of legal impropriety afoot and claimed that the case should be thrown out.
“Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me,” Trump wrote, providing a link to Greenfield’s Instagram profile. “How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!”
In response, the judge presiding over the case, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, issued a limited gag order and threatened to hit Trump with “serious sanctions” if he didn’t stop posting about the case. CNN reports that Engoron stated the following in relation to the order:
“This morning one of the defendants posted on (a) social media account a disparaging untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients…Personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them…
“Consider this statement an order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any members of my staff,” the judge said. “Failure to abide by this … will result in serious sanctions.”
It’s pretty sad when the judge has to treat you like an unruly child who just can’t get with the program. That said, we’ve been here before. Trump has already been warned by a different judge, in a separate case, that if he couldn’t manage to shut up he’d risk prejudicing a jury in the case. My guess is that this is going to keep happening. If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that the man cherishes the sound of his own voice more than pretty much anything else in this world—including, potentially, his own freedom.
This post was modified on 2023-10-04 08:33:14