New York Judge Holds Trump In Contempt For Not Yielding Papers

A New York judge on Monday held Donald J. Trump in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents to the state’s attorney general, an extraordinary rebuke of the former president, Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum reported for the New York Times.

Photo Insert: The former president himself was not in the courtroom when the ruling was announced.

The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, ordered Mr. Trump to comply with a subpoena seeking records and assessed a fine of $10,000 per day until he satisfied the court’s requirements.

In essence, the judge concluded that Trump had failed to cooperate with the attorney general, Letitia James, and follow the court’s orders. A lawyer for defeated former President Donald J. Trump had argued that he did not possess any documents relevant to the attorney general’s investigation.

Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from James, then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers' request, Luc Cohen and Karen Freifield reported for Reuters.

Engoron ruled that a contempt finding was appropriate because of what the judge called "repeated failures" to hand over materials and that it was not clear Trump had conducted a complete search for responsive documents.

"Mr. Trump … I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt," the judge said, although Trump himself was not in the courtroom.

James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president's New York City-based family company, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax deductions.

James has said her probe had found "significant evidence" suggesting that for more than a decade the company's financial statements "relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits."

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