JUDGE LIFTS CONTEMPT ORDER AGAINST TRUMP
Former president required to pay fine as part of conditions
Donald Trump was released from a judicial order holding him in contempt of court Wednesday, ending a two-week period for the former president, whose business practices are under civil investigation by the New York state attorney general.
A New York state judge, Arthur Engoron, held Trump in contempt late last month after finding that he had failed to comply with the terms of a December subpoena sent by the attorney general, Letitia James, requesting documents from his personal files. The judge ordered Trump to pay $10,000 a day until he complied, leading to a $110,000 penalty.
On Wednesday, Engoron withdrew the contempt order but set a few conditions, including requiring Trump to pay the fine. The judge ruled that if Trump and his company did not meet the conditions by May 20, he would reinstate the contempt order and retroactively apply the $10,000-aday fine.
In an effort to cooperate with the judge’s original contempt order, lawyers for Trump filed a number of court documents attesting to a thorough search of his records. An outside company also assured the judge that it had reviewed a vast number of files — more than 1,300 boxes — including Trump’s hard-copy calendars,
records in file cabinets at the Trump Organization’s offices in Manhattan and boxes of documents at offsite storage facilities.
The sweeping search for evidence in Trump’s records did not appear to turn up much information. Trump’s lawyers asserted that they did not locate any new records responsive to the subpoena from James.
Still, the battle over the records — and the contempt order against Trump — set the stage for James to potentially take legal action against the former president.
James, a Democrat, said in a court filing earlier this year that the Trump Organization had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” business practices. But she argued then that she needed to obtain additional records and testimony — including the documents sought from Trump’s personal files — before taking any legal action.
Because James’ investigation is civil, she cannot file criminal charges, but she
can file a lawsuit. In the contempt hearing last month, a lawyer from her office, Kevin Wallace, indicated that a suit could come soon, saying that the office was preparing to file an action against Trump in the near future.
In a statement, James celebrated the order for the fine to be paid and said her office would “continue to enforce the law and seek answers as part of this investigation.”
James’ inquiry is focused on whether Trump’s annual financial statements falsely inflated the value of his real estate properties and other assets so that he could secure favorable loans and financial benefits.
That area of focus overlaps with a separate criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which had been moving toward an indictment of Trump early this year before prosecutors developed concerns about proving the case.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called
James a “radical left racist.”
While lawyers for the former president said that they had conducted a thorough search for the records being sought by James’ investigators, Engoron said in April that the lawyers had not provided enough detail in official legal documentation about how and when those searches were conducted and who conducted them, and he moved to hold Trump in contempt.
Trump’s lawyers have appealed the contempt order, and that appeal will continue, they signaled Wednesday. While Trump must pay the $110,000, the money might be held in escrow for now, meaning that James’ office might not receive it until after the appeal is decided.
The $110,000 sum, while little more than a rounding error for someone of Trump’s wealth, underscores the severity of the contempt. Trump is loath to part with his money, and his lawyers argued aggressively to drop the financial component of the contempt order.
“It’s a lot of money,” Alina Habba, one of his lawyers, said at the hearing Wednesday.
Along with paying the fine, Trump’s lawyers must file a number of new documents attesting to the specifics of the search and the company’s policy for storing his records.
Separately, the outside company reviewing Trump’s records, HaystackID, must complete its review of the documents. Trump’s lawyers said that about five boxes remain unsearched.