Trump Gag Order Challenged Ruling Announced in New York Fraud Cause

As it turns out, even if Trump had been given a delay in the New York fraud case, it would not have mattered in terms of the gag order.

On Thursday, the ruling came down that the courts had rejected Trump’s challenge to the order.

The case wrapped up on Wednesday, with closing arguments now being scheduled for mid-January.

Bad Times for Trump

This is just one in a string of losses that Trump has suffered in the lawsuits, but the deck has been stacked against Trump in this particular case from the outset.

Judge Engoron, the presiding judge, had issued a partial summary judgment before the trial had ever started.

When that order was announced, Trump stated, "He ruled against me without knowing anything about me. He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me."

Trump had posted several rants about the case on Truth Social, including one where he stated that the court clerk was the girlfriend of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

That was the post that got under Engoron’s skin, which resulted in a gag order being issued that Trump could no longer discuss members of the court.

Trump violated that gag order twice, but it was temporarily lifted during the appeal but put back in place after Trump went on another rant.

New York Attorney General Letitia James claims that Trump regularly overvalued his assets to get better terms from banks for loans, but the valuations used by the court seem a bit off.

For instance, Mar-a-Lago was valued at under $30 billion, but properties one-tenth the size in the same county are selling for between $50 million and $60 million (I checked numerous realtor sites to verify the numbers).

Trump’s best chance to win this case has always been on appeal, which is more than likely why he eventually decided not to testify in the case as a Defense witness (he was called by the plaintiff’s legal team).