New York AG Letitia James asks judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt of court

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Donald Trump isn’t complying with a court order to turn over documents and should be held in contempt of court, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a filing Thursday.

“Mr. Trump should now be held in civil contempt and fined in an amount sufficient to coerce his compliance with the Court’s order and compensate OAG for its fees and costs associated with this motion,” the filing argued. James is asking for $10,000 a day or another amount state Judge Arthur Engoron considers “sufficient to coerce his compliance.”

At issue are documents James is seeking from Trump as an individual. His lawyers argue that the documents are in the possession of the Trump Organization, which has a different deadline for turning them over. But according to James, Trump is “highly likely to have been in possession, custody, or control of numerous documents” she’s seeking, and didn’t explain what he did to look for them before insisting that only the Trump Organization would have had them.

Trump had an early March deadline, which James’s office extended to March 31. But on March 31, Trump’s lawyers responded with a list of 16 objections to the subpoena rather than with the documents themselves, a move that James described as “more delay and obfuscation.” Trump attorney Alina Habba responded, “We are prepared to adamantly oppose the frivolous and baseless motion filed by the Attorney General’s office today.”

Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka have also been ordered to testify in the same investigation, but they are appealing. Eric Trump, who was already deposed, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

James is conducting a civil investigation into Trump’s business practices, including whether he valued his properties differently according to what helped him financially at any given moment, inflating their values when he wanted a bank loan and depressing them when it came time to pay taxes. On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his criminal investigation into Trump’s business practices is continuing despite the resignation of two prosecutors, one of whom said Bragg was killing that investigation.

If Trump’s claims about his own wealth are true, a fine of $10,000 a day should be nothing. But 1) Trump’s claims about his own wealth have been shown to be seriously exaggerated, and 2) it would still be fun to watch him forced to fork over $10,000 a day.

Ex-prosecutor: Trump is guilty of fraud beyond a reasonable doubt

Letitia James must have Trump scared: He’s suing to kill New York attorney general’s investigation

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