Trump asks judge to reject NY AG Letitia James’ contempt request

Former President Donald Trump questioned a choose to reject New York Lawyer General Letitia James’ bid to hold him in contempt for allegedly failing to comply with a subpoena as aspect of a civil investigation into his enterprise.

A law firm for Trump argued in a court submitting Tuesday that the previous president complied with James’ subpoena when his authorized crew told her that he would not have any of the documents she requested.

“Immediately after conducting a diligent search and evaluate, Respondent’s counsel determined that Respondent was not in possession of any documents responsive to the Subpoena and that all most likely responsive documents had been in the possession, custody or command of the Trump Group,” Trump’s legal professional Alina Habba wrote.

James is investigating allegations that the Trump Business misstated the values of some of its genuine estate assets to get better financial conditions when implementing for loans and insurance and for tax needs.

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 purchased Trump to “comply in entire” with a subpoena for him to create supplemental files and facts to the investigators.

James on April 7 urged the judge to keep Trump in contempt of courtroom, accusing the former president of violating the court’s get. She also requested Engoron to slap Trump with a high-quality of $10,000 just about every working day right until he turns about the paperwork.

“The judge’s order was crystal apparent: Donald J. Trump ought to comply with our subpoena and switch about applicable files to my business,” James claimed in a assertion at the time.

“As a substitute of obeying a court docket purchase, Mr. Trump is hoping to evade it. We are searching for the court’s speedy intervention simply because no one is above the law,” James mentioned.

Engoron is scheduled to hear 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 submitted the contempt movement “seemingly in an exertion to convert this make a difference into a community spectacle.”

Habba wrote that Trump adopted the subpoena’s guidelines. She argued that Trump was not expected to deliver any files to the investigators that ended up in the Trump Organization’s possession, if those people documents had already been made to James’ office.

“This provision is significant considering the fact that the Trump Business has independently manufactured a wide amount of paperwork to the [attorney general’s office] during the system of the issue investigation,” Habba wrote.

She also accused the attorney general’s business office of refusing “to have interaction in superior-faith discussions to deal with the troubles at hand.”

Given that “recalcitrant habits, it is fair to problem [the attorney general’s] motive in bringing the fast application, which appears to be minor far more than a contrived publicity stunt,” Habba wrote.