Trump appeals New York gag order to state's highest court

Former President Donald Trump appealed a gag order on Monday that bars him from speaking about a judge's law clerk to the New York Court of Appeals, less than a week after a lower court reinstated the order.

Ever since the first weeks of Trump's civil business fraud trial in October, the former president has been under a limited gag order due to his social media posts referencing Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron's staff. A filing appeared on the New York Appellate Division, First Judicial Department docket on Monday, showing Trump's intent to appeal the lower court's decision to the state's highest court.

Engoron contends his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, has sustained harassing and antisemitic messages ever since Trump posted a picture of her with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and referred to her as his "girlfriend" on Oct. 4, the second day of the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization.

Trump was ordered to delete the social media post and entered the gag order against him that day. Engoron has ruled Trump has violated the order twice and fined him a total of $15,000 so far, a fee Trump has already paid out.

The order has since been expanded to block Trump's attorneys from commenting about his communications with the clerk, who sits next to Engoron during the trial.