Affidavit: Trump says he doesn’t have records subpoenaed by NY AG
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers, seeking to reverse their client’s $10,000-per-day contempt fine, provided a New York judge Friday with an affidavit in which the former president claims he didn’t turn over subpoenaed documents to the state attorney general’s office because he doesn’t have them.
The judge, though, was unmoved and refused to lift sanctions he imposed on Trump on Monday. Judge Arthur Engoron criticized the lack of detail in Trump affidavit, which amounted to two paragraphs, saying that he should have explained the methods he uses to stores his records and efforts he made to locate the subpoenaed files.
In the affidavit, which bore Trump’s signature and Wednesday’s date, the former president said that documents sought in Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into his business dealings weren’t in his personal possession. Trump, who is appealing the contempt ruling, said he believed any documents would be in the possession of his company, the Trump Organization.
In other affidavits, Trump lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio detailed steps they took to locate documents in the Dec. 1 subpoena, including meeting with Trump last month at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and reviewing prior searches of his company’s files.
Andrew Amer, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, said in a court filing that while the affidavits “provide some additional information” about Trump’s efforts to comply with the subpoena, more extensive searches were needed — including of Trump Tower, his residences and electronic devices — before the judge should consider reversing the contempt finding.
Frank Runyeon, a reporter for the legal publication Law360, said that Engoron held an impromptu hearing Friday, without a court stenographer, in which he addressed the affidavits from Trump and his lawyers and ruled to keep the contempt fine in place.
Runyeon, one of the few members of the news media to attend the unadvertised hearing, reported that Engoron was insistent that Trump provide the “who, when, where, what” of his search, with the judge asking at one point: “Where did he keep files? I assume it wasn’t all in his head.”
Trump is also challenging Engoron’s Feb. 17 ruling requiring that he answer questions under oath. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for May 11.
A British national who played a key hole in a scheme by the Islamic State to kidnap and kill Western hostages a decade ago has been sentenced to life in prison.
Alexanda Kotey was one of several British captors known as “the Beatles” by their captives because of their accents.
The life sentence imposed Friday was automatic under the plea deal he made last year. But it does allow the possibility he can serve the remainder of his sentence in Great Britain after 15 years.
The hostage-taking scheme resulted in the deaths of four Americans, three of whom were beheaded. Family members tearfully described the impact of Kotey’s crimes at the hearing.
Kotey wrote a letter to the court expressing ambivalence about his conduct.
Beheadings sentencing:
Afghanistan explosion: An explosion ripped through a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding as many as 30, a Taliban spokesman said.
Hundreds of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Khalifa Aga Gul Jan Mosque was packed, said local residents, fearing the casualty toll could rise further.
The Taliban-appointed interior ministry spokesman, Mohammad Nafi Takor, could not provide more details and Taliban security men cordoned off the area.
The source of the explosion was not immediately known and no one has claimed responsibility for the blast.
The United Nations condemned the explosion, describing it as “heinous” and “yet another painful blow to the people of Afghanistan.”
Ex-lawmaker guilty: A former Idaho lawmaker was convicted Friday of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern after a dramatic trial in which the young woman fled the witness stand during testimony, saying “I can’t do this.”
The intern told a Statehouse supervisor that Aaron von Ehlinger raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a Boise restaurant in March 2021. Von Ehlinger said the sex was consensual.
At the time, the Lewiston Republican was serving as state representative, but he later resigned.
Von Ehlinger, 39, was found guilty Friday of rape. He was found not guilty of sexual penetration with a foreign object.
A felony rape conviction carries a minimum sentence of one year in prison in Idaho. The maximum penalty can be as high as life in prison, at the judge’s discretion.
Sentencing has been scheduled for July 28.
COVID-19 shots: The Food and Drug Administration on Friday set tentative dates in June to publicly review COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest American children, a step that is typically the final one before authorizing the shots.
The FDA said it plans to convene its outside panel of vaccine experts on June 8, 21 and 22 to review applications from Moderna and Pfizer for child vaccines. The dates are not final and the FDA said it will provide more details as each company completes its application.
Currently, only children ages 5 or older can be vaccinated in the U.S. with Pfizer’s vaccine, leaving 18 million younger tots unprotected.
The FDA also set a June 7 meeting to review Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for adults. The Maryland-based company’s shots are authorized in Europe and elsewhere but have been delayed by production problems.
Sri Lanka crisis: Sri Lanka’s president has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a proposed interim government to solve a political impasse caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a lawmaker said Friday.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed that a national council will be appointed to name a new prime minister and Cabinet comprised of all parties in Parliament, lawmaker Maithripala Sirisena said after meeting with the president.
Sirisena, who was president before Rajapaksa, was a governing party lawmaker before defecting this month with nearly 40 other legislators.
Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and has announced it is suspending payments on its foreign loans until it negotiates a rescue plan with the International Monetary Fund. It has to repay $7 billion in foreign debt this year, and $25 billion by 2026.