Attorneys for Donald Trump on Wednesday filed a motion for a mistrial in the State of New York’s civil business fraud case against the ex-president, but their public document may violate the gag order imposed by state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron.
In their motion, Trump’s attorneys are “alleging an ‘appearance of bias’ by the presiding judge and his principal law clerk,” The Messenger reports.
“Specifically,” the motion for mistrial states, “the Court’s own conduct, coupled with the Principal Law Clerk, Allison Greenfield’s (‘Principal Law Clerk’) unprecedented role in the trial and extensive, public partisan activities, would cause even a casual observer to question the Court’s partiality.”
The Messenger observes, “Greenfield’s name appears eight times in the motion, which cites her social media accounts. The phrase ‘Principal Law Clerk’ appears 44 times.”
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Judge Engoron’s gag order bars “attorneys in the case from publicly discussing the judge’s communications with members of his staff,” CBS News reported earlier.
Wednesday, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin reported, “Team Trump has now filed their promised mistrial motion on the public docket, and it is largely predicated on their observations of the interactions between Judge Engoron and his principal law clerk as well as her campaign contribution history.”
“And while Engoron’s limited gag order remains in effect, it lists her name. It reprints her campaign contribution history. And it contains her picture,” notes Rubin.
She also reminds that “on November 6, after Judge Engoron heard out Team Trump about their planned mistrial motion, he told them he didn’t ‘want to hear it in front of hundreds of people’ and instructed them instead to submit it as a proposed order to show cause, a specific procedural mechanism for triggering a hearing.”
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“I understood him to be instructing Trump’s team to submit their proposed order and motion directly to his chambers,” writes Rubin.
Importantly, Rubin explains: “That way, he could determine whether to hear the motion publicly and/or whether Trump’s supporting papers, which, as filed, seem to violate the very gag order they are protesting, should be redacted or sealed.”
Pointing to a closed-door meeting Trump’s attorneys had with Judge Engoron on Tuesday, Rubin allows it’s possible the judge gave his “permission” to file the mistrial motion on the public docket.
“But right now,” she concludes, “without further clarification, it appears they publicly filed their mistrial motion, brief, and supporting affidavits without such permission—and in a way that likely triggers another violation of the same gag order they claim exemplifies Engoron’s bias.”
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