A New York judge on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order on Donald Trump's trial for civil corporate fraud after the former president disparaged a key judicial official.

Interrupting a long day of testimony, Judge Arthur Engoron issued the order that applies to all parties in the case and concerns verbal attacks on court officials.

The order was issued after Trump circulated a critical comment on social media about Engoron's top legal assistant, Allison Greenfield.

According to Lusa, the publication included a photo of Greenfield with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posing for a photo at a public event.

Without naming Trump, Engoron said that a defendant in the case "posted on a social media account a derogatory, false and personally identifying message" about a member of his staff.

"Personal attacks on members of my team are unacceptable, inappropriate" and will not be tolerated, he stressed.

Trump - who had written that it was "disgraceful" that Greenfield was working with the judge in the courtroom - had already deleted the post whose deletion was ordered by Engoron.

A Republican candidate for president in 2024, Trump has repeatedly labeled the lawsuit and trial as a political attack by New York's Democratic attorney general, Letitia James.

In addition to this spectacle, with Trump present at the trial for the second day, James' lawyer questioned an accountant in an attempt to prove that Trump and others in his company had total control over the preparation of misleading and false financial statements, which are at the center of the lawsuit against them.

On Monday, Engoron had suggested that testimony about Trump's 2011 financial statement could be beyond the legal time limit applicable to the attorney general's process.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump and his company repeatedly lied about their wealth in financial statements given to banks, insurance companies and others.

The relevant statute of limitations excludes claims related to activities prior to a date in 2014, and Trump's legal team has argued that the time limit cuts off most of the case.

Also on Tuesday, Engoron said that "statutes of limitations bar claims, not evidence" and that, in the initial phase of the trial, he is inclined to give both sides considerable leeway to relate older evidence to the claims in the case.

"This trial is not an opportunity to re-litigate what I have already decided," said Engoron.

As early as last week, Engoron ruled that all complaints were admissible under the statute of limitations.

The trial is expected to last until December.