Appeals Judge Stays Engoron's Gag Order

Alan Dershowitz recently remarked that of all the Get Trump cases, the prosecutions have been putting on the weakest ones first. The New York civil case under Judge Engoron is hurning out to be not just weak but farcical. A recent commenter on Xwitter posted on the judge:

Dude! He looks like Mr. Burns off of the Simpsons. And he looks like he drives a van with no windows.

For comparison, here's Mr Burns. Judge Engoron is simply playing into Trump's hands -- in their motion for a mistrial and appeal of the judge's gag orders against Trump himself and his attorneys, they cite in particular evidence from the the judge's comments in his high school newsletter, of all things. He's 74 years old and hasn't left high school, despite his degrees from Columbia and NYU.

The Hill says of the appellate stay of his gag order:

The former president’s legal team requested an interim stay of Engoron’s gag orders — and the sanctions that resulted from his violation of them, which the New York appellate division granted after oral arguments Thursday.

The gag orders stemmed from an online attack Trump made on Engoron’s principal law clerk, who has become an unwitting main character in the fraud trial.

There's the nexus: Trump and his lawyers had been making fun of Engoron's apparent need to consult his principal clerk, Allison Greenfield, almost constantly, whispering and passing notes throughout the proceedings, which makes Engoron look weak and incompetent, and the fact that he frequently pontificates about Trump and his family in his high school newsletter only compounds the risibility. The judge has brought this on himself and doesn't seem able to back out of it. The Hill continues,

The appeals judge raised concerns over restricting Trump’s free speech in his decision to stay the gag order, meaning Trump can now comment freely about Engoron’s staff while the appeals process plays out.

Trump promptly seized this very opportunity:

Judge Arthur Engoron has just been overturned (stayed!) by the New York State Appellate Division (Appeals Court), for the 4th TIME (on the same case!). His Ridiculous and Unconstitutional Gag Order, not allowing me to defend myself against him and his politically biased and out of control, Trump Hating Clerk, who is sinking him and his Court to new levels of LOW, is a disgrace.

This again is, as Alan Dershowitz has also pointed out, the Chicago Seven defense. Engoron has telegraphed his insecurity on the point that he needs Ms Greenfield to sit with him on the bench, so his attorneys have been stressing this in their filings, and now with the gag order stayed, Trump is again hurling bombast at the two of them, which will only enrage Engoron further and elicit further bizarre reactions that soon enough will need to be overturned, and inevitably will make him a greater figure of ridicule.

None of the Get Trump cases has the A team either among the prosecutors or the judges, but the overall problem is that this case is the first one to come to trial, and it's inevitably going to set the tone for the ones that follow. The Trump Chicago Seven strategy seems to have been overall to bait the judges and prosecutors into imposing gag orders that inevitably will be overturned on appeal, and this process is now under way. This will only make the prosecutions seem weak and ineffective.

If the prosecution doesn't have the A team, Trump seems so far to have a much more capable group.