(New York) Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday for an insulting publication against the clerk of the New York court, where he is on civil trial for financial fraud in the management of his real estate empire .
During this trial, magistrate Arthur Engoron had banned, from the second day of the trial on October 3, all parties from attacking his team, after a publication deemed “degrading” for the clerk published on the account of the Republican billionaire on his Truth Social network.
PHOTO JEENAH MOON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Judge Arthur Engoron
The publication had been removed but “despite this clear order, I learned last night that the incriminating message had never been removed from the DonaldJTrump.com site and that it remained on this site for the last 17 days”, before to be ‘removed late last night [jeudi]but only in response to an email from this court,” the judge indicated on Friday, according to statements relayed by the American media and confirmed to AFP by a court spokesperson.
In a decision rendered Friday afternoon, the magistrate emphasized that he had an aside with Donald Trump on October 3 and that the latter had assured him that he would not do it again.
The judge considers that Donald Trump was “amply warned of the consequences of a violation” of the ban, but since this is the first time and the former president’s lawyers assured that the publication remained by “inadvertent” on the site, he imposed a “symbolic fine” of 5,000 dollars.
“Future violations, intentional or not, will expose the offender to much more severe sanctions”, warns the magistrate, referring to “heavier” fines or even his indictment for contempt of court and “possibly his placement in detention”.
“In today’s already overheated climate, inflammatory untruths can lead, and in some cases have already led, to serious physical harm or worse,” the judge added in his ruling.
Because of his often virulent statements, Donald Trump has also been barred from public comments aimed at prosecutors, court staff and witnesses at the upcoming criminal trial in Washington over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election. 2020.
A measure taken by the judge to contain the risks of threats, intimidation and harassment of the people targeted in the age of social networks.
Since the start of his civil trial, Donald Trump has continued to attack the attorney general of the State of New York, at the origin of the prosecution, Letitia James, an elected Democrat and African-American, whom he describes as of “corrupt”, “racist” and “horrible”.
Letitia James accuses the Republican and two of his children, Eric and Donald Jr., of having overvalued his New York golf courses, residences and skyscrapers by several billion dollars in the 2010s to obtain more advantageous loans from banks, which Donald Trump refutes. In particular, she is demanding a $250 million fine.