Former US President Donald Trump is repeatedly shooting blanks in his attempts to discredit a New York City judge overseeing his civil fraud trial. This time, he targeted the wrong person on social media ― for at least the second time this month.
A court reporter on Tuesday identified himself as the individual who is falsely pegged on Trump’s Truth Social account as the lawyer son of Judge Arthur Engoron. The judge, his clerk and other courthouse staff have received death threats and abusive messages in the wake of being personally identified in Trump’s incendiary posts about the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
A social media post shared by Trump at least twice as of Wednesday claims a bearded man pictured sitting in the courtroom is Engoron’s son. It alleges that he’s likely “financially benefiting” from Trump’s trial and has been given a “prominent” seat and “preferential access.”
“I thought it was worth setting the record straight,” New York Post reporter Ben Kochman wrote in an opinion piece in which he identified himself as the bearded man in the post. The original post was from far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
It’s not clear how Loomer concluded Kochman is the judge’s son, though it appears that it may be because both men have beards. Last month she shared a photo of a different bearded man attending a courthouse protest and similarly suggested it was the judge’s son siding with James.
Trump shared the post on Tuesday along with comments from George Santos, the expelled Republican congressman and serial liar, who proclaimed Loomer’s findings to be “significant” and worthy of an investigation by the House Oversight Committee. Santos said he flagged Loomer’s findings to his former colleagues but, according to Loomer, his efforts were rejected.
Kochman’s photo remained on Trump’s, Loomer’s and Santos’ social media accounts as of Wednesday. Representatives of Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the misidentification.
In addition to recirculating the reporter’s photo, Trump on Tuesday also shared previously debunked claims that Engoron’s wife, Dawn Engoron, has posted critically of Trump on social media throughout his trial.
Trump on Tuesday shared screen grabs from an article that baselessly accused the judge’s wife of sharing “anti-Trump memes” under a single-deleted account attributed to a “Dawn Marie.” The article cites Loomer as the single source of this claim.
Engoron’s wife told Newsweek that she denied making any such posts. A state spokesperson for New York’s Office of Court Administration also confirmed to The Messenger that she did not author those posts.
Trump is currently under a gag order after posting false allegations about people involved in his trial.
In October, he was formally barred from publicly criticising Engoron’s staff after he shared a post that falsely accused one of the judge’s staffers of being in a romantic relationship with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat, New York).
Engoron said the erroneous post resulted in his office receiving a barrage of threats from Trump supporters.
“In this current overheated political climate, incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already have, led to serious physical harm, and worse,” Engoron told Trump’s legal team, according to the New York Post. The court fined the former president for failing to remove the false claim from his social media page.
Trump lost his attempt to appeal the gag order last week.