In a court statement, Attorney General Letitia James said Trump had not complied with a court order that he “fully” complied with her summons for documents and information by March 31. James demanded that Trump be fined $ 10,000 a day, and maybe more, until he complied. “The judge’s order was crystal clear: Donald J. “Trump must comply with our summons and hand over the relevant documents to my office,” James said in a statement. “Instead of obeying a court ruling, Mr. Trump is trying to avoid it.” Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation a “witch hunt.” “We are ready to strongly oppose the superficial and unfounded proposal submitted by the attorney general’s office,” Trump’s lawyer, Alina Hampa, said in a statement. “Our client has consistently complied with the many disclosure requests served by the attorney general’s office over the years.” James’s three-year investigation and a parallel criminal investigation led by Manhattan Attorney Alvin Bragg focused on whether the Trump administration mishandled its real estate values to obtain favorable loans and tax breaks. Last week, James said her research had found “significant evidence” that for more than a decade the company’s financial statements “were based on misleading asset valuations and other misleading statements to secure financial benefits.” James challenged how the Trump Administration valued the Trump brand, as well as real estate, including golf clubs in New York and Scotland and the Trump Penthouse apartment in Trump Tower in downtown Manhattan. On Feb. 17, Judge Arthur Engoron of Manhattan State Court in New York ordered Trump to provide documents covered by the summons and to question Trump and his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. Jr. and Ivan. Trump later received an extension until March 31 for submitting documents. He and his children appealed to a state appellate court to overturn the decision requiring their filing.
It is not an “open offer” for renegotiation
In a March 31 court hearing, another Trump lawyer objected that the summons was “too broad” and unjustifiably cumbersome, and sought information protected by a client lawyer or executive privilege. But James said Thursday that Engoron’s mandate was not an “open offer” that would give Trump the right to renegotiate the summons. “The ship has been sailing for a long time based on Mr. Trump’s ability to raise such objections,” he wrote. James said that given Trump’s “supposedly meticulous involvement” in his company, “it seems unbelievable that there are virtually no documents now,” suggesting that he had a personal role to play in reviewing asset valuations. And while James has received Trump’s personal tax returns from 2011 to 2018, he said Trump has not provided any other material, including documents or notes in his own handwriting. In February, Trump’s long-standing accounting firm, Mazars USA, severed ties with himself and the Trump administration, saying it could no longer stand behind a decade of financial statements. Trump called James’s investigation “a politically motivated game that started with bad faith,” which was intended to advance her career against them. James, a Democrat, is seeking re-election in November. Trump, a Republican, could run for a second term in the White House in 2024. The status of Bragg’s criminal investigation was uncertain, following the resignation in February of the two senior prosecutors who had led it. According to the New York Times, Bragg, who took office in January and inherited the criminal investigation from his Democratic counterpart Cyrus Vance Jr., has expressed doubts about the charges against Trump. In a statement Thursday, Bragg said his office’s investigation was ongoing and defended his handling. “Prosecutors who carry out their duties can not and do not only pursue cases that are slam dunk,” he said. “I pledge that the office will publicly state the outcome of our investigation – whether we complete our work without prosecution or prosecute.”
