Judge holds Trump in contempt over documents in New York AG's inquiry

A New York judge on Monday held Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents to the state’s attorney general, an extraordinary rebuke of the former president.

The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, ordered Trump to comply with a subpoena seeking records and assessed a fine of $10,000 per day until he satisfies the court’s requirements. In essence, the judge concluded that Trump had failed to cooperate with the attorney general, Letitia James, and follow the court’s orders.

“Mr. Trump: I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously,” Engoron remarked, before holding Trump in contempt and banging his gavel.

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The ruling represents a significant victory for James, whose office is conducting a civil investigation into whether Trump falsely inflated the value of his assets in annual financial statements.

In January, James, a Democrat, said her office had concluded that the Trump Organization had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices involving the statements. But she said she would continue to investigate before deciding whether to sue Trump or his company.

Although James does not have the authority to file criminal charges, her civil inquiry is running parallel to a criminal investigation led by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who is examining some of the same conduct.

James’ office is participating in that separate investigation, which had appeared to be nearing an indictment of Trump earlier this year, before Bragg raised concerns about prosecutors’ ability to prove their case. Bragg, also a Democrat, inherited the inquiry from his predecessor after taking office Jan. 1.

The ruling Monday presents a roadblock for Trump as he continues to battle the attorney general’s investigation. James has sought to question the former president and two of his children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as part of her inquiry and attorneys for the Trump family are seeking to block the questioning. (In the fall of 2020, James questioned another of Trump’s children, Eric Trump, as part of her investigation.)

In March, Engoron sided with James, ordering Trump and his children to be deposed. The Trumps have appealed that ruling.

This month, lawyers from James’ office called for Trump to be held in contempt and assessed a daily fine of $10,000 as long as he continued to not cooperate. They said Trump had declined to turn over documents in response to eight separate requests. Trump’s attorneys had said the requests were “grossly overbroad,” and did not “adequately” describe the requested materials.

Last week, one of Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba, said in a document filed with the court that Trump did not have any of the documents that James had requested. Any such documents, if they existed, would be in the possession of the Trump Organization, she said.

She added that James had filed the motion for contempt without warning, “seemingly in an effort to turn this matter into a public spectacle.”

But James has said that at least some of Trump’s documents have yet to be turned over. In one filing, her lawyers mentioned a file cabinet that had been held at the company and contained the former president’s files, and noted that he used Post-it notes to pass messages to employees.

According to James, Trump’s attorney said that a file of Trump’s correspondence had not been searched, in part because the business had determined that Trump was not involved in preparing his own financial statements.

James called that assertion improbable, and referred to a statement affixed to the financial statements that says: “Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation” of the valuations.

In a separate case in federal court, Trump sued James, seeking to halt her civil inquiry and have her removed from the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation. That case is ongoing.