The Daily Fuckup

A New York judge on Oct. 25, 2023, fined Donald Trump $10,000 after finding that comments he made outside the courtroom violated a limited gag order in his civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump’s hallway remarks crossed a line the court had already set to protect court staff from public attacks.

The penalty followed a $5,000 fine imposed five days earlier, on Oct. 20, after the judge concluded that an earlier social media post about a court staffer had remained visible on Trump’s campaign website even after it was removed from Truth Social. Together, the two sanctions put a price tag on repeated violations of the order the court issued on Oct. 3.

Engoron has said the gag order can be enforced more aggressively if the violations continue. He warned that future breaches could lead to contempt sanctions and, in some circumstances, jail. On Oct. 25, however, the punishment was the $10,000 fine, not an arrest or immediate detention.

The ruling added another layer of conflict to a case already moving through a high-profile fraud trial. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the restrictions on his speech are too broad, while the judge has said the order is necessary to keep the proceedings from being derailed by attacks on staff. For now, the record is straightforward: Trump was told not to make certain public comments, and the court said he did it anyway.