New York (US) : Former President Donald Trump was fined USD 5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud case was allowed to linger on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted. Judge Arthur Engoron avoided holding Trump in contempt, for now, but reserved the right to do so - and possibly even put him in jail - if he continued to violate a gag order barring parties in the case from personal attacks on court staff.
Engoron said in a written ruling that he is way beyond the warning' stage, but decided on a nominal fine because Trump's lawyers said the website's retention of the post was inadvertent and was a first time violation. Earlier, an incensed Engoron said the failure to delete the post from the website was a blatant violation of his October 3 order, which required Trump to delete the offending message.