FINE AND DASH
Donald Trump storms out of courtroom as former US President is fined $10k for violating gag order
Judge Engoron paused the proceedings to warn Trump: "Don't do it again or it will be worse".
DONALD Trump was seen storming out of court after the judge slapped him with a $10,000 fine for violating his gag order.
The former US President looked fuming as he left the second day of his $250million fraud trial in New York.
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In a dramatic courtroom outburst this afternoon, Trump threw his arms up in the air before standing up and making a swift exit towards the door, sending Secret Service agents chasing after him.
The hasty departure came shortly after he had been hit with his second fine for violating a gag order.
The judge determined that comments the former president had made to reporters during a break in the trial were in violation to a partial gag order imposed by Justice Arthur Engoron on October 3.
Judge Engoron issued the order after Trump posted on social media a photo of the judge's top clerk posing with U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, and falsely called her Schumer's "girlfriend."
Speaking outside the courtroom earlier that morning, Trump had told reporters: "This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is," - an apparent reference to his clerk Allison Greenfield.
Engoron, surmising that Trump was referencing his clerk, called the comments a "blatant" gag order violation.
Trump's hallway remarks came as Michael Cohen, his onetime lawyer and fixer, testified for a second day against him.
Before he was fined, Trump slowly rose from his seat at a bench between his attorneys and sat in the witness box to address his comments.
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He told Engoron he was referring to "you and Cohen" during his remarks, but the judge ultimately found his testimony "not credible."
The judge rejected the idea, echoed by Trump's lawyer Christopher Kise, that the "partisan" person Trump mentioned was Cohen.
"The idea that that statement would refer to the witness, that doesn't make sense to me," Engoron said.
"Don't do it again or it will be worse."
Judge Engoron had paused proceedings just before the lunch break to scold Trump for his remarks, calling it a "blatant, dangerous disobeyal" of his court order.
Engoron had already ordered all participants in the trial not to comment publicly about his staff in the order imposed on October 3.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election, stormed out of the courtroom after being fined.
It comes just five days after Engoron fined Trump $5,000 after finding out he had not removed an offensive post about the clerk, warning that future transgressions could bring "far more severe" sanctions including jail.
In originally imposing the gag order, Engoron said comments against his staff were "unacceptable, inappropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstances."
Engoron's clerk has sat next to the judge during the trial, standard practice in a New York state court.
Alina Habba, one of Trump's lawyers, told Engoron she saw the clerk appear to roll her eyes during Cohen's testimony, and that this was "completely inappropriate."
Trump's trial concerns allegations that he and his family business, the Trump Organization, unlawfully manipulated asset values and his net worth to dupe lenders and insurers.
The case could break up Trump's wildly successful business empire.
Cohen's two days of testimony marked his first face-to-face encounters with Trump in five years.
Trump "arbitrarily" inflated the value of real estate assets to secure favorable insurance premiums, Cohen testified on Tuesday.
Since cutting ties and becoming one of Trump's fiercest critics, Cohen has written two books and created a political podcast.
Cross-examined by Habba on today, Cohen acknowledged having a financial incentive to criticize Trump, but defended his credibility.
He rejected Habba's contention that he has "made a career" of attacking Trump and embellishing criticism for personal gain.
"The more outrageous your stories are about President Trump, the more money you make," Habba said.
"Is that accurate, Mr. Cohen?", to which Cohen responded, "no".
A lawyer for Trump's adult son Eric Trump - also a defendant in the case - asked Engoron to immediately enter a verdict in the defense's favor based on what he called Cohen's contradictory testimony.
Cohen said on Tuesday Trump told him to inflate his asset values but said during 2019 congressional testimony he did not recall whether he received such a directive.
Engoron denied the request, saying it would be "absurd" to rule in the defense's favor midway through trial based on an "equivocal" statement by one witness.
"There's enough evidence to fill this courtroom," Engoron said.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in the case.
He separately has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases this year.
Cohen's testimony could bolster the attorney general's case though his admitted record of deceit could undermine his credibility before Engoron, who alone will decide the outcome of the bench trial.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax fraud, campaign violence violations and perjury and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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Before the trial's October 2 start, Engoron found that Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth, and ordered that companies that control crown jewels of his real estate portfolio, including Trump Tower in Manhattan, be dissolved.
That ruling is currently on hold while Trump appeals.
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