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(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Today, lawyers for Donald Trump outdid themselves by arguing that Donald Trump should be free to publicly abuse a civil servant without restraint. They’re real sorry about all those death threats, but, you know … THE BITCH DESERVES IT.
On October 3, Trump finally managed to convince a court to gag him, after he posted a picture of New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s law clerk on Truth Social, falsely describing her as Senator Chuck Schumer’s “girlfriend.” Since then, he’s managed to violate it twice, netting himself $15,000 in fines. But last week the order was administratively stayed by Judge David Friedman of the First Judicial Department citing constitutional concerns.
On Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, attorneys for Justice Engoron, the nominal defendant in the appeal, explained to the appellate panel why it should reinstate the order.
After reminding the court that gag orders are routinely imposed to protect the integrity of a trial and the safety of parties, attorney Lisa Evans, Deputy Counsel in the Office of Court Administration attached an affirmation from Charles Hollon, a Court Officer-Captain in the Department of Public Safety of the New York State Unified Court System.
Hollon informed the court that the clerk (whom we will not be naming) has been receiving 20-30 threatening or harassing calls to her cellphone and 30-50 similar messages via social media and email. Trump’s lawyers have consistently argued that the lack of public record of threats means that they aren’t happening. But, as Hollon attested, “Judges who receive threats are advised to not make public statements discussing the threats or any security measures that may be in place because doing so could compromise the security measures put in place to protect them and those around them.”
Here, where the target has an identifiably Jewish last name, many of the messages are explicitly antisemitic. And the intensity of the threats and harassment increases when Trump targets her.
“The threats against Justice Engoron and [REDACTED] are considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative,” Hollon wrote.
The document included multiple samples of transcribed calls from a cache which runs to 275 single-spaced pages.
Naturally Trump responded with in heartwarming holiday message:
Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia “Peekaboo” James, who has let Murder & Violent Crime FLOURISH, & Businesses FLEE; the Radical Left Trump Hating Judge, a “Psycho,” Arthur Engoron, who Criminally Defrauded the State of New York, & ME, by purposely Valuing my Assets at a “tiny” Fraction of what they are really worth in order to convict me of Fraud before even a Trial, or seeing any PROOF, & used his Politically Biased & Corrupt Campaign Finance Violator, Chief Clerk [REDACTED], to sit by his side on the “Bench” & tell him what to do; & Crooked Joe Biden, who has WEAPONIZED his Department of Injustice against his Political Opponent, & allowed our Country to go to HELL; & all of the other Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Fascists, Marxists, Democrats, & RINOS, who are seriously looking to DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. Have no fear, however, we will WIN the Presidential Election of 2024, & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
All of which looks bad if you’re trying to explain to the First Judicial Department why the administrative stay of the gag order should be extended. And so Trump’s lawyers put their heads together and came up with an unimpeachable legal argument. What if … THE BITCH DESERVES IT?
Now, to a normal person, this might seem disgusting and ghoulish, not to say wildly antisemitic. But that’s more or less Trump’s brand, so perhaps his lawyers Alina Habba and Cliff Roberts can be forgiven for thinking it might play with the appellate panel.
They start with the usual histrionics about “the wholesale suspension of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights”:
In sum, the Gag Orders shield Justice Engoron and his openly partisan clerk from the precise scrutiny essential to maintaining public confidence in the judiciary and ensuring a fair trial. Supreme Court has ignored with impunity clear, and troubling, evidence of partisan political bias and, in so doing, undermined, perhaps irreparably, the rule of law.
Then they repeat the allegations about bias, excessive political contributions, and undue influence that make up their rejected motion for a mistrial.
As this Court undoubtedly knows, it is simply not normal or appropriate practice for a principal law clerk to sit on the bench and provide constant input while an elected Supreme Court Justice presides. Justice Engoron’s emphatic contentions that he is the ultimate decisionmaker are self-serving, defensive, and untenable given that everyone in the packed courtroom can plainly observe that the parties are arguing the case to both Justice Engoron and the Principal Law Clerk. Fan Aff. ¶¶ 3, 26 (“[M]y Principal Law Clerk does not make rulings or issue orders – I do.”). That Justice Engoron feels compelled to repeatedly justify his abnormal practices and assure the public that he, not his law clerk, is fulfilling his judicial duties, underscores the bizarre and deeply problematic nature of his practices. There is simply no room in the judicial system for openly partisan individuals to participate at all in the decision-making process.
How is the mistrial motion pertinent to the gag order? Dunno! But they attached 1850 pages of mistrial motions and transcripts to front end of this thing for no apparent reason. Maybe the plan was to bury this nastiness far enough down that no reporters would find it. And if my theory of the case was that THE BITCH DESERVES IT because she showed up at work and did her job, I’d try and hide it, too:
Additionally, the purported security concerns are disingenuous given the Principal Law Clerk’s voluntary public, partisan posts and political activities and her insistence in remaining as a constant and unprecedented presence on the bench, allowing herself to be filmed and then viewed by an audience of millions since the underlying, extraordinarily high-profile trial commenced.
No really, THE BITCH DESERVES IT:
As set forth above, the Principal Law Clerk, though a civil servant and private citizen, has actively campaigned for a judicial seat and taken on a central, public role in a politically charged trial while continuing to engage in partisan activity. While the Principal Law Clerk’s privacy interests are not entirely subordinated to her role as a law clerk, her public role and public conduct cannot escape public scrutiny on generic “privacy” grounds.
Trump never asked his goons to deliver antisemitic death threats. But if that happened, well … THE BITCH DESERVES IT:
The voicemail messages transcribed in Mr. Hollon’s affirmation undoubtedly contain disturbing, derogatory, and indefensible comments and threats, some of which are directed at the Principal Law Clerk. However, none of the contemptible dross reflected in those messages can be attributed to President Trump or his counsel. Nor have President Trump or his counsel ever made a statement referencing the Principal Law Clerk’s religion, appearance, or private activities. Rather, the speech prohibited by the Gag Orders concerns the Principal Law Clerk’s public social media posts in furtherance of her judicial campaign and in support of Democratic candidates, groups, and platforms—partisan advocacy that continued during the pendency of this 20 action. The prohibited speech also concerns the Principal Law Clerk’s public presence and role throughout the trial and her violation of ethical proscriptions on campaign contributions.
Have they mentioned that the bitch had the nerve to show up for work and get photographed doing her job?
This is particularly true where Justice Engoron has actively encouraged the Principal Law Clerk’s prominent and highly visible public presence during this trial, by both allowing her to sit on the bench with him and by permitting still photography and video cameras to document this unusual arrangement and publish same in the national and international media. To be sure, countless press pool photographs and videos depicting and identifying the Principal Law Clerk by name have been published and republished in hundreds of news articles and millions of social media posts since the trial began. It is beyond cavil that Petitioners are not responsible for publicly identifying the Principal Law Clerk in any one of those photographs, articles, or social media posts.
In summary and in conclusions, Your Honors, THE BITCH DESERVES IT, and the gag order should be permanently enjoined so that Donald Trump can call in an endless troll storm of death threats and harassment because this woman had the nerve to run for office and show her face at work.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes the Law and Chaos substack and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.
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