Donald Trump’s attorney responded Tuesday to an effort by New York Attorney General Letitia James they despise the former presidentalleging that he does not have the documents required by James.
On April 7, James’s office asked a state judge to issue a contempt order against Trump, saying he had failed to comply with a previous ruling requiring him to hand over the documents before March 31 as part of an investigation into your company’s financial practices.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said in a presentation Tuesday night that Trump’s team tried to comply with the subpoena, but determined that it was not in possession of any of the documents requested by the attorney general. Habba wrote that he informed the Attorney General’s office that Trump’s eponymous company could have the requested documents, which include personal statements of financial status, tax audit materials, and insurance-related documents.
“While this result may be to the dissatisfaction (of the Attorney General), the fact is that a diligent search was done and it was found that (Trump) does not have any of the requested documents,” Habba wrote.
James’s office also demanded that Trump be fined $ 10,000 a day until he serves his sentence. Habba called the proposed fine “excessive” in Tuesday’s filing.
In its April 7 presentation, James’s office also accused the Trump Organization of “restricting” a third-party company tasked with uncovering the case.
Trump and two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, received the order on February 17 appear for bowel movements and Jaume long-term civil fraud investigation. They appealed the order to appear, but at the time did not challenge a separate part of that sentence in which Trump had been ordered to comply with a subpoena “requesting documents and information.”
The judge ordered Trump to comply with the demand for documents and information before March 3, and later extended that deadline to March 31, a date both sides agreed to at the time, according to court documents.
James’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. On April 7, he said in a statement that “instead of obeying a court order, Mr. Trump is trying to evade it.”
James’s office said in a February press release that his extensive investigation has gathered evidence “showing that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements for economic gain.” The initial focus of the investigation was whether the Trump Organization inflated asset valuations while seeking loans and insurance coverage and deflated their value to reduce tax liability.
James ’investigation was cited by accounting firm Mazars USA in a Feb. 9 letter retracting a decade of financial statements compiled for the Trump Organization. As part of his research, James’s office is too looking for information from a second accounting firm which worked for Trump’s company, RSM US LLP.
On April 8, James’s office filed a motion to compel the real estate company Cushman & Wakefield to comply with subpoenas related to the appraisal work done on several Trump properties. A company spokesman said in an April 11 statement to CBS News that “any suggestion that Cushman & Wakefield did not respond in good faith to the attorney general’s investigation is fundamentally false.”
Trump and his company have repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing. He described the investigation as “unconstitutional”. a Dec. 20 phone call with CBS News, and referred to himself as “a harmed and innocent party.” That day, Trump filed a federal lawsuit with the goal of stopping James’ investigation.
Former Trump President Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were ordered to testify under oath in the New York investigation
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Jame’s investigation has gone hand in hand with a separate criminal investigation led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. That investigation, which on July 1, 2021 led to charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officerappears stopped.
Two prominent prosecutors, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, resigned in February, less than two months after newly elected Manhattan Attorney Alvin Bragg took office, succeeding Cyrus Vance Jr., who began the investigation in August 2018. A Pomerantz’s letter of resignationpublished in The New York Times, Pomerantz wrote that Vance “concluded that the facts warranted a trial,” but that Bragg “had made the decision … not to seek criminal charges at this time.”
Bragg said in a statement Thursday that the research “continues” and that its investigators and prosecutors are “exploring previously unexplored evidence.”
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- The Trump organization
- Donald Trump
- Letitia James
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