Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354M, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

According to Donald Trump's attorney Chris Kise, 3,701 people viewed a screenshot of Trump's false Truth Social post about Judge Engoron's clerk that was added to Trump's 2024 campaign website.

Engoron had requested that Kise provide specific information about the reach of Trump's post after it was removed from Truth Social but remained on the campaign site. A screenshot of the Truth social post was available on Trump's campaign site for more than two weeks after it was removed from the Truth Social platform, according to Engoron.

Kise said that the post was initially emailed to 25,810 people from a "press" email list. A total of 6,713 people opened the email, which directed recipients to a post on Trump's campaign website.

Of the 114 million people who visited Trump's campaign website between Oct. 3 and Oct. 19, a total of 3,701 users viewed the actual post, including the people directed to the post via email.

"You have to click through layers to get there," Kise said.

Engoron has still not ruled on what punishment, if any, Trump faces for the potential violation of his gag order.

Judge Engoron said he is considering holding former President Trump in contempt of court -- and even raised the possibility of imprisonment -- following what Engoron described as a "blatant violation of the gag order" imposed earlier this month during the trial.

Engoron imposed a limited gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a false social media post about the judge's clerk. While Trump immediately removed the post from Truth Social, Trump's campaign website appeared to still include the social media post until last night.

"Despite this clear order, last night I learned that the subject offending post was never removed from [the Trump's campaign website], in fact had been on that website for the past 17 days," Engoron said.

The judge said he was considering holding Trump in contempt of court, fining him, or "possibly imprisoning him."

"Incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already had, lead to serious physical harm," Engoron said.

Trump's lawyer Chris Kise told Engoron that the website including the post was an "inadvertent" mistake and that Trump has tried to comply with the order since it was imposed.

"The Truth Social post was taken down when President Trump represented it to the court," Kise said.

Addressing why the post remained on Trump's campaign website, Kise blamed Trump's "very large [campaign] operation."

"This unfortunately is a part of the process that is built into the campaign structure," Kise said.

Engoron, who did not immediately resolve the issue, said, "I will take this under advisement, but I want to make clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine, even if it is a large machine."

Defense lawyer Clifford Robert filed a letter late Thursday asking Judge Engoron to strike testimony from Trump Organization executive Patrick Birney about an alleged "scheme" to pump former President Trump's net worth.

During his testimony Monday, Birney testified that former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg told him that "Mr. Trump wanted his net worth on the statement of financial condition to go up." The New York attorney general has argued this statement supports the existence of an "illicit agreement or scheme" within the Trump Organization to inflate Trump's net worth.

Describing the statement as "merely a recitation of what Mr. Weisselberg allegedly heard from President Trump without adoption or indorsement," Robert argued that the statement cannot be assumed to be true based on Birney's testimony.

"In any event, there is nothing in the record establishing President Trump actually made the statement to Mr. Weisselberg," Robert added in a footnote to his letter.

Day 14 of the proceedings gets underway following a motion filed late Thursday by Ivanka Trump that seeks to quash three subpoenas that would compel her to testify in the trial.

Donald Trump's eldest daughter, who was no longer a part of the Trump Organization by 2016, was dismissed from the civil suit by an appeals court in June.

But the New York attorney general still plans to call her as a witness in the state's case. In early September, the AG sent subpoenas to three corporate entities affiliated with Ivanka Trump to force her to testify in person.

"The NYAG, which never deposed Ms. Trump, is effectively trying to force her back into this case from which she was dismissed by a unanimous decision of the Appellate Division, First Department," Ivanka Trump's lawyer, Bennet Moskowitz, wrote in Thursday's filing.

Moskowitz argued that the subpoenas should be thrown out since they were not properly served and because the AG lacks jurisdiction to force Ivanka Trump, who is no longer a New York resident, to testify.

"The NYAG knows this, which is why it has subpoenaed three corporate entities as an end-run around its failure to pursue Ms. Trump's deposition when it had the chance," the filing said.

In a Thursday email that was entered as an exhibit to the motion, a lawyer for the attorney general's office indicated they do not plan to request Judge Arthur Engoron hold Ivanka Trump in contempt. They instead plan to file a motion today to compel her to appear in court, according to the email.