Trump and Aides Immediately Attack Clerk After Gag Order Is Paused

The schedule set by the appeals court means that the gag orders could remain paused for much of the remainder of the civil fraud trial, which stems from a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. The trial is expected to last until mid-December.

Justice Engoron, who is a Democrat, had justified his own gag order against Mr. Trump by citing threats against his staff. He wrote this month that his chambers had received “hundreds of threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages.”

But Justice Friedman seemed skeptical that Mr. Trump had said anything that would lead directly to threats against court staff. He repeatedly asked whether Mr. Trump had used specifically threatening language against Ms. Greenfield, who is also a Democrat, and seemed satisfied that the answer was no.

Justice Friedman also appeared skeptical of Ms. Greenfield’s prominence at the trial, where she appears at the bench alongside the judge every day. He asked a lawyer appearing on Justice Engoron’s behalf whether that practice was unusual. The lawyer, Lisa Evans, said that clerks did sometimes sit on the bench, and Justice Friedman seemed to relent on that point, agreeing that was the case.

A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Alina Habba, praised the appellate court after the Thursday hearing and quickly took advantage of the development.