(New York) Lawyers for Donald Trump, who are seeking to overturn their client’s $10,000-a-day fine for contempt, provided a New York judge with an affidavit on Friday in which the former president claims that ‘He hasn’t given the state attorney general’s office the subpoenaed documents because he doesn’t have them.
Posted at 8:59 p.m.
However, the judge remained impassive and he refused to lift the sanctions he imposed on Mr. Trump on Monday. Judge Arthur Engoron criticized the lack of detail in Mr Trump’s affidavit, which amounted to two paragraphs. The judge says he should have explained the methods he uses to store his records and the efforts he made to locate the files.
In the affidavit that bore Mr. Trump’s signature and was dated Wednesday, the former president said the documents sought in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into his business dealings were not not in his personal possession. Donald Trump, who is appealing the contempt decision, said he believed all the documents would be in the possession of his company, the Trump Organization.
In other affidavits, Mr. Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba and Michael Madaio, detailed the steps they took to locate the documents targeted by the 1er December, including meeting with Mr. Trump last month at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and reviewing previous searches in his company records.
Andrew Amer, a lawyer with the Attorney General’s office, said in a court document that while the affidavits “provide additional information” about Mr. Trump’s efforts to comply with the subpoena, research Further investigations were needed — including inside Trump Tower, his residences and his electronics — before the judge would consider overturning the contempt verdict.
Attorney Alina Habba filed a notice of appeal Wednesday with the state trial court’s Appellate Division seeking to overturn Judge Engoron’s contempt ruling. Mr. Trump is also challenging Mr. Engoron’s Feb. 17 ruling requiring him to answer questions under oath. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for May 11.
Democrat Letitia James said her investigation found evidence Mr Trump may have misstated the value of assets such as skyscrapers and golf courses in his financial statements for more than a decade. His subpoena from 1er December requested numerous documents, including documents and communications regarding its financial statements and various development projects.
Mme James asked Judge Engoron to hold Mr Trump in contempt since he failed to produce any documents by the March 31 deadline. In his ruling, Judge Engoron said Mr. Trump and his attorneys not only failed to meet the deadline, but also failed to document the steps they took to search for the documents, such as the requires case law.
Donald Trump, a Republican, is suing Mme James in federal court in an effort to halt his investigation. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for May 13.
Mr Trump recently called her “an agent of the Democratic Party”. He mentioned in written statements that his investigation and a parallel criminal investigation overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, another Democrat, and that it is “the continuation of the greatest witch hunt in all the time. »
Alvin Bragg said this month that the three-year criminal investigation he inherited in January from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., is continuing “without fear or favour” despite a recent reshuffle in the direction of the investigation. . Mr. Trump’s lawyers argue that Mr.me James uses his civil investigation to gain access to information that could then be used against him in the criminal investigation.
So far, the New York prosecutor’s investigation has only resulted in tax evasion charges against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, over lucrative employee benefits such as the rent, car payments and school fees. The company and Mr. Weisselberg have pleaded not guilty.