New York Condition Lawyer Standard Letitia James in New York Metropolis, November 19, 2019.
Lucas Jackson | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump asked a judge to reject New York Attorney Normal Letitia James’ bid to maintain him in contempt for allegedly failing to comply with a subpoena as part of a civil investigation into his organization.
A law firm for Trump argued in a court filing Tuesday that the previous president complied with James’ subpoena when his lawful workforce instructed her that he does not have any of the paperwork she asked for.
“Soon after conducting a diligent look for and overview, Respondent’s counsel determined that Respondent was not in possession of any documents responsive to the Subpoena and that all possibly responsive paperwork ended up in the possession, custody or regulate of the Trump Organization,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba wrote.
James is investigating allegations that the Trump Corporation misstated the values of some of its serious estate property to get superior economical phrases when implementing for loans and coverage and for tax applications.
New York Supreme Court docket Judge Arthur Engoron in February denied requests by Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to toss out subpoenas issued to them by James.
Engoron also ordered Trump to “comply in full” with a subpoena for him to create added documents and facts to the investigators.
James on April 7 urged the judge to keep Trump in contempt of court, accusing the previous president of violating the court’s get. She also questioned Engoron to slap Trump with a wonderful of $10,000 every single day till he turns around the documents.
“The judge’s buy was crystal very clear: Donald J. Trump should comply with our subpoena and switch in excess of relevant files to my business,” James explained in a statement at the time.
“In its place of obeying a courtroom get, Mr. Trump is striving to evade it. We are trying to get the court’s speedy intervention mainly because no a single is above the legislation,” James said.
Engoron is scheduled to listen to oral arguments about the contempt dispute Monday afternoon.
In the courtroom filing Tuesday evening, Trump’s law firm speculated that the legal professional general’s office filed the contempt motion “seemingly in an energy to transform this matter into a public spectacle.”
Habba wrote that Trump followed the subpoena’s instructions. She argued that Trump was not demanded to present any files to the investigators that had been in the Trump Organization’s possession, if these documents experienced currently been manufactured to James’ business office.
“This provision is critical due to the fact the Trump Corporation has independently generated a extensive amount of paperwork to the [attorney general’s office] during the system of the topic investigation,” Habba wrote.
She also accused the lawyer general’s office environment of refusing “to engage in very good-religion discussions to address the problems at hand.”
Presented that “recalcitrant conduct, it is fair to dilemma [the attorney general’s] motive in bringing the instant application, which appears to be very little more than a contrived publicity stunt,” Habba wrote.