New York’s attorney general has asked a state judge to issue an order of contempt against ex-President , claiming he failed to hand over documents in an investigation on his company’s financial practices.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday additionally requested a $10,000-per-day fine for Trump until he complies with the prior ruling to turn over the records.
A judge had ordered Trump to comply by March 3, and that date was extended to March 21, court documents show.
In the filing, James’ office claimed that Trump’s lawyers said he would not provide the subpoenaed documents ‘because his counsel (based on search efforts that have not been divulged) could not find any’.
‘The judge’s order was crystal clear: Donald J Trump must comply with our subpoena and turn over relevant documents to my office,’ James stated. ‘Instead of obeying a court order, Mr Trump is trying to evade it. We are seeking the court’s immediate intervention because no one is above the law.’
Trump and his eldest children, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, appealed an order to appear for depositions in James’ civil fraud investigation. At the time, they did not challenge the ruling for Trump to comply with a subpoena ‘seeking documents and information’.
Also on Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading a separate criminal probe on Trump Organization business practices, insisted that it is ‘very much ongoing’ despite two senior prosecutors resigning from the case.
‘It’s open, it’s active, we have a great team in place of dedicated career prosecutors working every day,’ Bragg told . ‘We’re exploring evidence that’s not been previously explored. We will leave no stone unturned.’
Bragg’s probe has led to tax fraud indictments on the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, but not on Trump himself.
One of the two prosecutors who left in February, Mark Pomerantz, had stated in his resignation letter that the case was ‘suspended indefinitely’.
.
For more stories like this, .
