In dramatic day in court, Trump delivers surprise testimony — then gets slapped with $10K fine

NEW YORK — Donald Trump unexpectedly took the witness stand Wednesday in his civil fraud trial to face questioning from the judge about out-of-court comments in which Trump appeared to disparage the judge’s law clerk.

Finding Trump “not credible,” the judge then fined him $10,000 for defying a gag order that bars Trump from attacking court staff, marking the second time in the past week that the judge has fined Trump for violating the gag order.

“As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible,” Justice Arthur Engoron said after Trump testified.

The surprise testimony was perhaps the most dramatic moment thus far in the trial, in which the New York attorney general has sued Trump and his businesses for fraudulently inflating Trump’s net worth. Gasps could be heard in the courtroom as the former president walked from the defense table to the witness stand.

The episode that sparked the judge’s ire was a statement that Trump made earlier in the day to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. “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,” Trump said.

With Trump on the witness stand, the judge asked: “To whom were you referring?”

“You and Cohen,” Trump replied, referring to Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer who testified about Trump’s business practices on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Engoron, however, indicated he believed Trump was referring to his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, who sits directly to the judge’s right on the bench and whom Trump had already disparaged once before.

The judge initially imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 barring Trump from making comments about court staff after the former president posted a picture of Greenfield on his Truth Social platform. The post claimed that Greenfield was “running this case” and was “Schumer’s girlfriend.” The post was also sent to Trump’s campaign email list. The office of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said Schumer does not know Greenfield and has called Trump's claim “ridiculous, absurd, and false."

“I am very protective of my staff, as I should be,” Engoron said Wednesday, appearing agitated. “I don't want anybody killed.”

“I stated the last time that any future violations would be severely punished,” Engoron said. “Why should there not be severe sanctions for this blatant, dangerous disobeyal of a court order?”

In remarks to reporters after court broke for lunch, Trump denied his comments had concerned Greenfield, but repeatedly refused to answer questions about who they were about.

About half an hour after the judge issued the fine Wednesday afternoon, Trump abruptly stood up from the defense table, walked out of the courtroom and didn’t return.

In an email, a spokesman for the former president said Engoron “continues to harass President Trump, doing everything possible to infringe on President Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech and interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Last week, Engoron fined Trump $5,000 after finding that the former president’s campaign website continued to display the Oct. 3 Truth Social post despite the judge’s order that the post be taken down. (Trump’s lawyers said the violation was inadvertent.)

Engoron also indicated last week that he would consider jailing Trump for future violations of the gag order.

In his two-page order imposing the earlier fine, Engoron wrote: “Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include, but are not limited to, steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him.”

Trump is also fighting a separate gag order in the federal criminal case, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, stemming from Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The judge in that case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, ordered Trump not to make statements that “target” Smith, his prosecutors, court personnel, defense attorneys or witnesses.

Trump’s lawyers have appealed that gag order, and Chutkan temporarily lifted it while she considers a request to keep it rolled back during the appeal.

In the New York fraud trial, Cohen concluded two days of testimony Wednesday after being grilled for hours by Trump’s lawyers about Cohen’s prior guilty pleas in federal court cases, his past statements defending Trump and whether he financially benefited from his relationship with Trump — both while working for him and after Cohen turned on his former boss.