- Allison Greenfield, principal law clerk in Trump's NY fraud case, is hoping to be elected judge.
- She's received hate mail and threats since Trump called her a "co-judge" who's "running this case."
- Her judgeship candidacy has gained momentum and support among Manhattan Democrats.
Donald Trump has attacked her as a biased "co-judge—" claiming she secretly runs the show at his New York civil fraud trial — but now principal law clerk Allison Greenfield is well on her way to becoming a judge in her own right.
Greenfield is running to be a civil justice in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, just like Arthur Engoron, the fraud-trial judge she so famously clerks for, and from whom Trump is awaiting a potentially corporation-crippling verdict.
Last week, Greenfield cleared the biggest hurdle to the Manhattan civil judgeship she seeks, when local Democratic party leaders rated her "most highly qualified."
The next big step happens on Monday. That's when Democratic district leaders are expected to nominate Greenfield to be the unopposed Democratic candidate for the judgeship on the November ballot.
She appears to have backing in high places. The borough's top Democrat, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, touted her qualification success on Threads.
"The trial clerk in Trump's civil fraud trial, Allison Greenfield, has been viciously targeted by the MAGA crowd with vile rhetoric and death threats," Levine wrote.
"Plot twist: Now she has taken a major step towards becoming a civil court judge herself."
Last week's screening panel success was likewise enthusiastically welcomed.
"Greenfield drew the biggest round of applause" in the room when the New York County Democratic Committee announced the names of all ten candidates who qualified for judgeships throughout Manhattan, Our Town reported of the February 1 vote.
The vote to qualify Greenfield was first reported by Law360, which noted that the city's Democratic party machine effectively selects the judicial candidates who will be on the party's ballot lines in each borough.
Democratic candidates for judgeships often run unopposed in this city of few Republicans. Judges serve 14-year terms and then must seek re-election.
Greenfield and Engoron have sat side-by-side, as clerk and judge, for more than two years of hearing and trial dates, as New York officials and Trump warred over the ongoing fraud case, where a verdict is expected in the next two weeks.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has alleged Trump fraudulently inflated his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion a year in a decade's worth of annual net-worth statements he used to win $168 million in loan-interest savings.
Trump has countered that no fraud was committed and that his valuations were conservatively low. Lawyers for his co-defendants in the lawsuit — the Trump Organization, eldest sons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump, and longtime company executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney — have also denied wrongdoing.
Engoron has yet to determine a final penalty but has so far sided with the AG, finding that even pre-trial there was ample proof of billions of dollars in fraudulent annual valuations.
Greenfield has been a visibly active participant in the case, often conferring with the judge during public proceedings.
"When the judge speaks, you have to stop speaking," Greenfield told Trump attorney Alina Habba early on, during a 2022 pretrial hearing.
Trump is on the losing side of their collaboration on so many orders, rulings and decisions that early in the trial, he began targeting the clerk by name in spoken and online attacks.
His earliest attack, a Truth Social post from just one day after opening statements, falsely called her the "girlfriend" of Senate majority leader and longtime New York Democratic powerbroker Chuck Schumer.
The October 3 post claimed without evidence that Greenfield was "running this case against me." It included the clerk's name, photograph and social media link.
In response, Engoron issued a gag order barring Trump from attacking anyone on his legal staff.
Twice more in October, Engoron sanctioned Trump for violating the gag order — the first time by failing to remove the Truth Social post from his campaign website, and the second time for calling the clerk "very partisan" in remarks to reporters — resulting in a total of $15,000 in fines.
Engoron similarly gagged Trump's attorneys, barring them, too, from making statements about his legal staff.
In unsuccessfully fighting both gags, the lawyers shared their client's ire over Greenfield.
She's fair game for comment because "She has voluntarily undertaken to co-judge one of the highest-profile cases in American history," they argued in challenging the gag.
"It is apparent to anyone attending the trial or reading contemporaneous press coverage that the Principal Law Clerk plays a visible and prominent role in the trial, as she sits immediately adjacent to Justice Engoron on the bench," they wrote.
"Justice Engoron consults with her on almost every ruling, and they pass contemporaneous notes," they wrote.
The gag and sanctions have been unable to stem the deluge of anti-Semitic and threatening emails and phone calls that Greenfield and the judge have faced.
A transcript of the threats totaled 275 single-spaced pages, according to an affidavit filed by the court system in support of the gag order.
Greenfield ran for the same judgeship without success in 2022. She declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.