NEW YORK — A gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial was temporarily lifted Thursday by an appellate judge who raised free speech concerns.

Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court issued what’s known a stay — suspending the gag order and allowing the former president to freely comment about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

The trial judge, Arthur Engoron, imposed the gag order Oct. 3 after Trump made a false comment about the judge’s law clerk on social media. He later fined Trump $15,000 for violations and expanded it to his lawyers after they questioned the clerk’s prominent role in the trial.

Ruling at an emergency hearing Thursday, Friedman questioned Engoron’s authority to police Trump’s speech outside the courtroom — such as his frequent gripes about the case on social media and to journalists.

Friedman said that while judges often issue gag orders, they’re mostly used in criminal cases where there’s a fear that comments about the case could influence the jury. Trump’s civil trial doesn’t have a jury.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said after Friedman ruled that the appellate judge “made the right decision and allowed President Trump to take full advantage of his constitutional First Amendment rights to talk about bias in his own trial, what he’s seeing and witnessing in his own trial.”

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, said Trump hasn’t threatened clerk Allison Greenfield’s safety and suggested that she was bringing scrutiny upon herself by being visible in court and using social media.

Friedman’s ruling also applies to Trump’s lawyers and others involved in the case.

Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly put Greenfield under a microscope. They contend the former Democratic judicial candidate is a partisan voice in fellow Democrat Engoron’s ear and that she is playing too big a role in the case involving the former Republican president.