A New York appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order against President Trump Thursday, which was limiting Mr. Trump from commenting on court staff due to posts attacking Judge Arthur Engoran’s court clerk.

An intermediate judge of New York’s Appellate Division, Judge David Friedman, lifted the gag order, allowing Mr. Trump to comment on court staff as the appeal moves forward.

At the trial, Judge Engoron had imposed the gag order on Mr. Trump for calling the court clerk, Alison Greenfield, “Schumer’s girlfriend” and accusing the clerk of “running this case against me” in a post that linked to the clerk’s Instagram account.

Lawyers for Mr. Trump filed a suit against Judge Engoron Wednesday evening, challenging the gag order. Judge Friedman scheduled an emergency hearing for Thursday afternoon, where he ruled to lift the gag order while a longer appeals process goes forward.

“At base, President Trump has been, under threat of fine or incarceration, precluded from offering his perception of how his own bench trial is being conducted,” Mr. Trump’s attorneys Alina Habba and Clifford Robert wrote in appellate papers.

Mr. Trump has been fined for violating the gag order multiple times. After Mr. Trump’s violations, Judge Engoron expanded the gag order to include Mr. Trump’s lawyers. 

Judge Engoron justified the gag order on the grounds that they were tailored to protect his staff, saying that the chambers had been “inundated” with “hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages.”

Ms. Habba told the Associated Press that she thinks “Both sides need to be able to speak and the fact that I, frankly, couldn’t and my client couldn’t speak, for the past however many days, is so unconstitutional.”

Mr. Trump and his attorney have, throughout the trial, focused on Ms. Greenfield with both Mr. Trump and his attorney’s arguing that she is biased against Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump’s attorney’s also argued that his position as the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination made any gag order against him suspect to extra scrutiny.

“This constitutional protection is at its apogee where the speech in question is core political speech, made by the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, regarding perceived partisanship and bias at a trial where he is subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and the threatened prohibition of his lawful business activities in the state,” Mr. Trump’s attorney’s wrote in a filing.