NEW YORK – The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s $250-million civil fraud trial in New York raised the possibility on Friday of putting the former president in prison after Trump failed to comply with a partial gag order.
The order requires Trump to remove a social media post condemning the judge’s law clerk, NBC News reported.
Judge Arthur Engoron said in court on Friday morning that Trump had posted on his social media account “an untrue and disparaging post about my clerk” and that he spoke to the former president about the matter, according to NBC News.
“I ordered him to remove the post immediately and he said he did take it down,” Engoron was quoted as saying.
“Despite this order, last night I learned the offending post was never removed from a website. This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear (that) failure to comply will result in serious sanctions,” the judge added.
A spokesperson for New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case, declined to comment. Trump’s lawyers, Christopher Kise and Alina Habba, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.