According to Mediaite, a new court filing has unveiled disturbing threats, including hundreds of threatening, harassing, and antisemitic messages, made to Judge Arthur Engoron, presiding over the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump in New York. The threats, targeting both the judge and his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, have raised serious security concerns.
The court officer, Captain Charles Hollon, detailed the alarming content of the messages in an affidavit. One voicemail threatened, “Trust me. Trust me when I say this. I will come for you. I don’t care. Ain’t nobody gonna stop me either.” Another message called Judge Engoron a “dirty, treasonous piece of trash snake” and warned, “We are coming to remove you permanently.” Greenfield, the judge’s law clerk, has been subjected to daily harassment, doxing, and antisemitic tropes.
The threats come in the context of the civil fraud trial against Trump, where the former president has violated the gag order imposed by Judge Engoron twice. An appeals court paused the gag order, citing Trump’s constitutional rights, but the recent threats have prompted calls for its reinstatement. Attorney Lisa Evans argued that the conduct engaged in by Trump, including the deluge of threats, warrants the imposition of the limited gag orders to ensure the safety of court staff.
[I]t is unquestionable that the conduct engaged in by Petitioners [Trump and his legal team] — the deluge of the court’s chambers phone and the law clerk’s personal cell phone, personal emails and social media accounts with hundreds of threatening, harassing, disparaging and antisemitic messages — which threatens the safety of court staff is the type of countervailing interest being served that warrants the imposition of the limited gag orders imposed by the Court.
The First Amendment does not prohibit courts from limiting speech that threatens the safety of court staff, and Evans emphasized that courts have broad discretion to control the conduct of litigants and attorneys in ongoing proceedings. Despite the threats, Trump has continued to criticize Judge Engoron, Greenfield, and New York Attorney General Letitia James on his social media platform, Truth Social.
