Donald Trump and his attorneys are insisting that the attacks on Allison Greenfield, the law clerk assisting Judge Engoron in the NY fraud lawsuit against the former president and his company, The Trump Organization, are not his fault, despite being one of the attackers on social media. Trump has taken to his Truth Social account to harass Greenfield, and many of his supporters have taken to calling and texting Greenfield’s personal phone number and messaging her on social media with aggressive and anti-semitic comments.
Donald Trump has been found liable for fraud in the state of New York—NY Attorney General Letita James has filed against him and his company for fraudulently inflating his net worth in order to get more favorable rates on bank loans. Trump has repeatedly called the trial a “witch hunt” on social media, and has even taken to personally attacking Judge Engoron, his family, and now Greenfield. Keep reading for more information.
Who Is Allison Greenfield And What Has Trump Said About Her?
Allison Greenfield is a law clerk, a lawyer that provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. She sits directly next to Judge Engoron on the bench and remains mostly quiet, but passes notes to Judge Engoron throughout the day. Judge Engoron has said that during the trial he has "an absolutely unfettered, unrestricted right" to get legal advice from his clerk and "may consult my law clerks at any place, any time, about any matter." So what is Trump mad about?
Essentially, he is angry that she is doing her job. On Nov. 16th, in a lengthy Truth Social post, he called her a "politically biased and out of control Trump Hating Clerk," and since then, Greenfield has received a massive amount of hate from his supporters—like 275 single-spaced pages of threats and harassing messages.
Trump's lawyers wrote in a recent filing that, "She constantly passes him notes, whispers in his ear, and publicly consults with him on nearly every ruling." They've also pointed out that "this extended consultation occurs primarily when Petitioners' counsel, rather than the Attorney General."
Judge Engoron issued a gag order early in the trial that prohibited Trump and his attorneys from harassing members of his staff, which Trump violated and was consequently fined $10,000. The gag order was then put on hold, and Trump resumed attacking Greenfield on social media, which has since been reinstated.
Trump Claims The Threats From His Supporters Are Not His Fault
An affidavit submitted by a NY state court security officer says that the threats Greenfield received were "serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative."
Trump's lawyer's disagree. In a request for a stay of case, the lawyers argued that while the messages sent to the clerk are "vile and reprehensible," they do not suggest that she is in "imminent harm."
"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 has commenced," the court document reads.
However, the security officer's affidavit points out that, "The implementation of the limited gag orders resulted in a decreased number of threats, harassment, and disparaging messages that the judge and his staff received," the affidavit continues. "However, when Mr. Trump violated the gag orders, the number of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages increased." This points to the idea that Trump's supporters will do as he does.
