Read: The Manhattan court order holding Donald Trump in contempt and fining him $10,000 a day for dodging a subpoena
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On Monday, a Manhattan judge held Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to comply with NY AG Letitia James' demand for his documents.
The 3-page contempt order was signed Tuesday by NY State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
Instead of producing documents, Trump produced "16 pages of boilerplate objections," he wrote.
On Monday, a Manhattan judge held former president Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena that requires he turn over his personal business documents to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating his real estate business.
On Tuesday, the judge, New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, signed the contempt order. Read the contempt order here.
The order stipulates that Trump must pay a $10,000-a-day fine until he complies in full with James' subpoena.
It also criticizes Trump's response to a December 2, 2021 subpoena James served on Trump, seeking he turn over his documents in two weeks. That deadline would be pushed back repeatedly, first as Trump sought without success to quash the subpoena, and later through agreements with James' office as Trump asked for more time.
A final, March 31 deadline was set, the order states. But instead of producing documents on that date, "Mr. Trump produced 16 pages of boilerplate objections and a four-page affirmation by counsel that states, summarily, the Mr. Trump was unable to locate any responsive documents in his custody."
Trump's response said nothing about how and where Trump had searched in order to decide he had nothing more to turn over, the contempt order says.
James is wrapping up a three year probe into whether the former president lied about the value of his assets in official documents in order to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and reap millions more in tax breaks.
Her previous court documents indicate she is probing business deals going back a decade and involving at least 10 of his properties.
Investigators with James' office have complained in court papers and in at least three hearings before Engoron that they believe the notoriously computer-averse former president kept file cabinets full of hard-copy documents in Manhattan, in the Trump Tower headquarters of his real estate business, the Trump Organization.
But Trump and his lawyers have yet to say in a sworn statement whether these, and other possible on-site and off-site storage locations, have been searched, James' office has complained.
The business has to date turned over just ten of Trump's so-called "custodial" documents, James' office complains. He himself has turned over not a single page.
His lawyers say the Trump Organization has already turned over 900,000 documents, and they insist the AG already has everything she has asked for.
On Monday, James office called the contempt order an important victory that demonstrates "no one is above the law."
Trump attorney Alina Habba told reporters Monday she will clear the matter up quickly by signing an affidavit herself attesting to what locations were searched and came up empty.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's decision," Habba said. "All documents responsive to the subpoena were produced to the attorney general months ago."
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