Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk Allison Greenfield have been inundated with death threats and antisemitic attacks after Donald Trump targeted the judge and his assistant on social media.
According to an affidavit filed by attorneys for the New York state court system, Engoron and Greenfield have been subjected to a “deluge [in] the court’s chambers phone and the law clerk’s personal cell phone, personal emails and social media accounts [of] hundreds of threatening, harassing, disparaging and antisemitic messages.”
The filing argues that the harassment leveled against Engoron, who is charged with ruling in the state’s civil fraud case against the former president, and his staff support the need for gag orders against Trump and his attorneys.
On Oct. 3, Trump posted an image of Greenfield, Engoron’s principal law clerk, on Truth Social. He described Greenfield as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) “girlfriend.”
“Schumer’s girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!” Trump wrote. In response, Engoron leveled a narrowly tailored gag order against Trump barring him from targeting his staff; the order was later expanded to include the former president’s attorneys. Trump was fined in late October for violating Engoron’s order.
Despite the gag order, Greenfield was subjected to intense online abuse by Trump’s supporters. According to court documents, “Ms. Greenfield’s personal information, including her personal cell phone number and personal email addresses also have been compromised resulting in daily doxing. She has been subjected to, on a daily basis, harassing, disparaging comments and antisemitic tropes.”
According to testimony given by Greenfield to Charles Hollon, a court officer-captain in the Department of Public Safety, the clerk “has been receiving approximately 20-30 calls per day to her personal cell phone and approximately 30-50 messages per day on combined sites of social media, Linkedln and two (2) personal email addresses.”
Hollon writes that the “threats against Justice Engoron and Ms. Greenfield are considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative.” In his signed statement, Hollon included examples of some of the voicemails left on Engoron’s court voicemail, the censored slurs were generated by the court’s transcription software.
“Everything about you screams little fagot dork. So again. I hope they. ******* bury your ugly ***. You and that fat ******* ***** ******* planet of the apes ******* star Letisha [James] the ***********. Little ******* Jews and, filthy little Jews […] That’s you. And I hate that word, and I hate putting people under group but you are filthy little Jews,” one voicemail said, adding that Engoron “should be assassinated. You should be killed […] You should be executed. But on trial executed for your crimes.”
“We are going to get you and anyone of you dirty, backstabbing, lying, cheating American. You are nothing but a bunch of communists. We are coming to remove you permanently.”
Hollon added that “the messages received by Justice Engoron and his staff every day has created an ongoing security risk for the judge, his staff and his family,” and that the implementation of a gag order “resulted in a decrease in the number of threats, harassment, and disparaging messages that the judge and his staff received.”
“However, when Mr. Trump violated the gag orders, the number of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages increased,” Hollon wrote.
Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/judge-engoron-staff-death-threats-antisemitic-attacks-1234894395/