Former President Donald Trump was held in civil contempt of court on Monday by a New York judge, part of a long-running legal dispute with New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The judgment was issued after Trump’s failure to respond to a subpoena issued by James’ office, which is conducting a high-profile civil fraud investigation into Trump’s family businesses. The investigation is examining whether the Trump Organization falsely inflated the value of its properties and other assets in financial statements.
While the Organization had provided some documents to James, it declined to submit others by the March 31 deadline. According to James, Trump “had agreed to the timeline” but then raised “baseless objections” to the subpoena just before the deadline. Per settled law, Trump was “not permitted to delay proceedings” in the case, said James – leading her office to file a motion of contempt on April 7.
Justice Arthur F. Engoron of the New York Supreme Court’s 1st Judicial District, based in Manhattan, granted that ruling in a bench decision, concluding that Trump didn’t conduct a “proper, thorough search” for items that James had requested. Justice Engoron had previously ruled in February that Trump was required to “comply in full” with the subpoena. In March, he also ordered that Trump and his children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. be deposed, which Trump has appealed. While announcing the decision on Monday, Justice Engoron said “Mr. Trump: I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously,” before he banged his gavel.
Trump will now be filed $10,000 a day until he complies with the subpoena. James had previously claimed eight separate requests were issued to Trump before the contempt ruling was sought.
Trump has called the investigation a “witch hunt” for political gain by James, who is running for re-election this year and had previously sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of New York, before withdrawing from that race. Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, had previously said Trump did not possess documents that James had requested, some of which she claimed do not exist. She called the contempt motion a “public spectacle” and said Trump intends to appeal Monday’s ruling.
The ruling is in parallel to two ongoing and connected cases involving Trump and James’ office. One is a criminal fraud investigation being led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is examining whether Trump’s alleged inflation of asset values was used to obtain favorable loans and tax advantages. The case, focusing on Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, has attracted controversy for Bragg’s subpoenas of records from Weisselberg’s personal bank and the Manhattan private school that his grandchildren attend. Two attorneys from James’ office are part of the investigation. The other is a lawsuit filed by Trump against James in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to dismiss her civil probe and have her two attorneys removed from Bragg’s criminal investigation.