New York judge lifts Trump’s civil contempt order ‘conditionally’

NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge on Wednesday said he would “conditionally” lift a civil contempt order against former President Donald Trump and stop billing him $10,000 a day in the New York attorney general’s investigation of Trump family business.

State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s decision doesn’t let Trump entirely off the hook — it requires him to pay $110,000 in fines accrued between April 26 and May 6. Engoron imposed the fines to punish Trump and his business for defying a court-ordered deadline to turn over documents to state Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump has to submit detailed affidavits regarding what he knows about searches for the documents, and Engoron wrote that he will have to be satisfied that “all responsive documents” have been turned over to James’ staff, his order states.

If Trump doesn’t comply, the daily fines will resume retroactive to May 7, Engoron said.

Engoron issued his order after a private phone conference with parties in the case.

James’ civil investigation is poised to soon result in a lawsuit against Trump, his family business, and top company executives, lawyers for the attorney general said in April.

Investigators say they’ve uncovered evidence Trump Organization executives habitually misrepresented the value of company properties by hundreds of millions of dollars to enrich themselves.

As James’ nearly threeyear probe draws to a close, Trump has repeatedly maintained through his attorney Alina Habba that he has no more evidence to personally hand over, as he never put anything in writing, whether by email or text.

But at the last court hearing, when Engoron inquired about Trump’s penchant for writing on Post-it notes, assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace said the office had found evidence the digital-averse Trump regularly put pen to paper.