New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a New York court Thursday to declare former President Donald Trump in “civil contempt” for allegedly failing to comply with a court order to deliver certain documents for the ongoing investigation. against him.
State Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump in February to “comply fully” with the attorney general’s subpoena for documents and information. He also ruled that Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump must comply with subpoenas to testify, but the Trumps are appealing that decision.
In the motion filed Thursday, the attorney general’s office said Trump “absolutely failed to comply” with the subpoena for documents, and that his attorneys said he would not submit any text in response to the subpoena, because they believe that if the documents exist, the Trump Organization would have them, and the attorney general’s office “will just have to wait until the Trump Organization completes its production to get them.”
According to new documents, the prosecution has agreed to extend the early March deadline for documents to March 31. But instead of delivering them that day, Trump filed 16 objections to the subpoena demands.
Trump’s attorneys also submitted to the attorney general’s office an affidavit from a Trump attorney stating that the former president was “unable to locate the documents” and that, to the extent they existed, they were in the custody of the Organization. Trump, which faces a separate subpoena deadline.
James argued that the response from Trump’s lawyers amounted to “further delay and obfuscation,” saying his objections came too late. He said it was “very likely that Trump was in possession, custody or control of numerous documents” related to his investigation and that he did not adequately detail the efforts undertaken to search for the documents.
Trump must now “be held in civil contempt and fined an amount sufficient to compel him to comply with the court’s order and compensate the prosecution for its fees and costs associated with this motion,” the filing states.
James is asking the court to impose a fine of $10,000 a day or any other amount it deems “sufficient to compel him to comply with the February 2022 court order,” in addition to compensation for costs and fees from the attorney general’s offices for file the claim. movement.
