Trump Held in Contempt by Judge for Not Turning in Documents, Fined $10,000 a Day

Former President Donald Trump is being held in civil contempt by a New York judge after allegedly not turning over documents following a subpoena in an investigation into the Trump Organization.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office claims Trump did not comply, and Judge Arthur Engoron says he will now be fined $10,000 a day until he does so, per CNN. The office has been investigating Trump for two years. 

“We are being hampered in our efforts to have a complete understanding because we don’t have evidence from the person who sits at the top of the organization,” said Andrew Amer of the AG’s office, who added that Trump hasn’t provided “even a single responsive document” for the subpoena. 

During a Monday hearing, Engoron asked why the matter has taken so many steps, as the AG’s office is investigating Trump for what the office claims are misleading financial statements and omissions. James wrote on Twitter after the hearing that “justice prevailed.”

“Our investigation into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings will continue undeterred because no one is above the law,” James wrote.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said Trump didn’t have the documents that the AG’s office were looking for, and that she searched through his physical files and even interviewed him about the matter, calling him an “honest person, much to the dismay of certain people in this room.”

“President Trump does not email. He does not text message. And he has no work computer at home or anywhere else,” Habba said. “I took it upon myself to get on a plane and flew down and asked him one by one if there was anything that he had on his person that he had not given me I would need that. And he did not.”

Habba claims that the organization has now seen six separate subpoenas and has offered 6 million pages of documents in relation to the investigation. 

“The scope is continuously changing to fit the attorney general’s needs,” Habba said in court. “When it is not satisfied with the evidence it has obtained it pivots and looks for something new.