Appeals judge temporarily pauses Trump gag order in fraud case; Manhattan DA fights push to toss out criminal case

NEW YORK — Donald Trump's lower Manhattan court cases continued to pick up speed Thursday — as the former president was temporarily freed from a gag order in his civil case and criminal prosecutors argued his political power shouldn't shield him from accountability in his criminal one.

Trump's lawyers convinced a mid-level appeals court to temporarily lift Judge Arthur Engoron's orders prohibiting them and Trump from commenting on his court staff after filing an emergency request for relief earlier this week. They argued the gag orders imposed during his civil financial fraud trial violated his right to free speech and their ability to defend him.

First Department Judge David Friedman cited constitutional concerns in his handwritten order pausing Engoron's gag rulings, intended to stop Trump from putting his staffers on blast, namely, his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Trump is free to say what he wants until the appeals court hears arguments, when the panel may reinstate the order.

"Fortunately, the constitution and the First Amendment protect everyone, including President Trump. The public will again have full access to what is taking place in this unprecedented trial," Trump lawyer Chris Kise said in a text to the Daily News.

Engoron issued the limited gag order after learning of a disparaging Truth Social post about Greenfield published to the former president's account while he was inside the courthouse on Oct. 3, which boosted the false claim she's dating Sen. Chuck Schumer. Trump's since been fined $15,000 for violating it twice.

The judge expanded his order on Nov. 3 to include Trump's lawyers when they continued to cast aspersions about his working relationship with his clerk, citing worries over his staff's safety amid "hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages" his chambers had received since the trial started.

Greenfield sits beside Engoron on the bench and has played an active role in the case in the years since New York Attorney General Tish James' investigation into Trump's real estate empire spilled into court during the investigation phase. In their mistrial motion Monday, Trump's lawyers charged that Greenfield's "unprecedented and inappropriate" role in the case should get it thrown out of court. State lawyers on Thursday asked Engoron to give them more time to respond to the "total lack of merit" motion.

Engoron is considering six claims against Trump, his two older sons, and former top executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney at the trial now in its seventh week. Trump's defense case started Monday with testimony from Don Jr.

The judge found Trump and his crew liable for repeated and persistent fraud before the trial started based on undisputed evidence showing they inflated Trump's net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in financial statements over a years-long period to illegally profit in deals with banks and lenders. The ruling could see Trump lose control of prized properties in his real estate portfolio if upheld on appeal.

The outcome of the remaining six claims could see him forced to repay more than $300 million in illegal gains and be prohibited from serving as head of a New York business.

Thursday's appeals court development was one of several to emerge in Trump's unwinding New York cases.

In new court filings, prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Trump's belief that his "politically powerful" stature should shield him from legal jeopardy should be rejected along with the high-profile defendant's bid to nix his criminal hush money case.

Opposing Trump's request last month to get the case thrown out of court and other remedies, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo said it should proceed to trial. He told Judge Juan Merchan the ex-president's outlandish requests "mischaracterize the factual record and disregard controlling law."

"[Trump] repeatedly suggests that because he is a current presidential candidate, the ordinary rules for criminal law and procedure should be applied differently here," Colangelo wrote Merchan.

"This argument is essentially an attempt to evade criminal responsibility because [Trump] is politically powerful."

Trump's motion to toss the case argued that the DA lacked evidence showing he'd reimbursed his ex-fixer Michael Cohen for a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels under the table to commit or conceal other crimes, necessary to charge him with felony-level falsification of business records. In response, Colangelo revealed prosecutors have gleaned fresh evidence from "campaign insiders" of Trump's criminal motivations before and after the election in relation to hush money payoffs.

Prosecutors allege the payment marked an attempt to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election by keeping the truth about the alleged one-night-stand from voters. In the partially-redacted filings, Colangelo also said grand jurors had heard evidence they could infer meant Trump intended to deceive election regulators.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts in the indictment returned by a grand jury in March, which marked the first in history against a former or current U.S. president. Each count represents a separate check to Cohen in 2017 as secret reimbursements for the Daniels transaction the year before, with interest. Cohen went to federal prison for the payoff and other crimes in 2018 and is cooperating extensively.

As he sits atop the polls in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, Trump faces 91 felonies in four criminal cases and a slew of lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars for alleged criminality before, during and after his presidency.

He denies all allegations, characterizing his cases as part of a Democrat-led "witch hunt!" intended to prevent him from regaining power.

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