A judge in New York found former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to produce documents pursuant to a subpoena from state Attorney General Letitia James. James is conducting a civil probe of the Trump Organization's business practices.
Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a penalty of $10,000 a day until Trump fully complies.
James opened her civil probe of Trump business practices in 2019, after former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Donald Trump was a "con man" who would routinely inflate or deflate the reported value of his assets to further his business interests.
Over the past few months, the probe moved into a new phase when James subpoenaed Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. James was seeking testimony directly from the Trumps and documents directly in Donald Trump's custody, as opposed to papers held by the Trump businesses.
The Trumps made an array of motions to slow or block James' information-gathering, including filing a countersuit in federal court.
In February, a judge ruled that Trump must produce the requested documents by March. By the end of March, prosecutors reported that just 10 documents in Trump's possession had been produced in response to earlier subpoenas.
Trump's attorney has claimed in court filings that Trump has performed a "diligent" search and found no further items covered by James' request.
Trump has maintained throughout he did nothing wrong and is the victim of a politically motivated prosecutors.
"The AG's motion is completely baseless," a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in recent email. "President Trump left The Trump Organization in 2017 and any responsive documents were previously provided to the AG by The Trump Organization."
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