“Trump has willfully disobeyed a lawful order of this court,” a New York judge says as $10,000-a-day fines begin

The check is due now, Mr. Former President.

A New York judge said Donald Trump would have to start paying a $10,000-per-day fine Tuesday after finding him in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena from the state Attorney General’s Office for business-related documents.

“Mr. Trump has willfully disobeyed a lawful order of the court,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in a three-page order on Tuesday.

The written order came a day after Engoron held a hearing on the matter and orally ruled that the former president was in contempt of court.

Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the Trump Organization and Trump in connection with allegations that the company improperly manipulated the stated valuations of various real estate assets to obtain more favorable financing terms for loans and insurance, and to reduce its tax liabilities.

The Trump Organization denies any wrongdoing, and the Republican Trump himself has accused James, a Democrat, of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Engoron wrote Tuesday that “each day that passes without Trump complying” with James’ subpoena “further harms” the attorney general’s civil investigation, “as the statute of limitations continues to run and may result in [James] be unable to pursue certain causes of action that [she] otherwise I would.”

The judge said Trump would have to pay $10,000 a day until he satisfies the judge that he has complied with the subpoena. The order left open the possibility that Trump could satisfy the subpoena by detailing in an affidavit that he had conducted an extensive search of the records, which his attorney said he was unable to find.

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said Monday that she will appeal the contempt ruling to the Engoron court against the former president and the related daily fine.

In February, Engoron had ordered Trump to produce certain documents requested by James via subpoena.

James earlier this month asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt for failing to provide those documents and instead waiting until the order’s March 31 deadline to object to the subpoena, and for asserting James only then that Trump was unable to locate any of the documents.

Engoron, in its Tuesday order, wrote that Trump had waived his right to “raise standard objections to the subpoena for failure to timely serve” when he previously tried to get the judge to vacate the subpoena.

“Having stipulated that all documents be submitted by March 31, 2022, Mr. Trump can no longer challenge the validity of the subpoena,” Engoron wrote.

The judge also called Habba’s claim during Monday’s hearing that a search of the records had turned up nothing responsive to the subpoena “woefully inadequate.”

Engoron said New York case law requires the person conducting such a records search to disclose “who”, “what”, “where”, “when” and “how” the search was conducted.

“Mr. Trump has not refuted, with admissible evidence, [the Attorney General’s Office’s] detailed claims that he did not search numerous filing cabinets in various locations,” Engoron wrote.

The affidavit Habba gave Engoron about the search “failed to provide the court with any basis for determining that the search had been thorough or that it had been conducted in a good faith effort to provide necessary records to the plaintiff,” the judge wrote. .

“Not only did Mr. Trump fail to file an affidavit himself, which this court believes would have been best practice…but the attorney statement filed on behalf of Mr. Trump contained only conclusive statements, rather than details of a diligent search. .”

On Monday, after finding Trump in contempt, Engoron ordered commercial real estate services giant Cushman & Wakefield to comply with subpoenas issued by James’ office over its appraisals of several Trump Organization properties.

The attorney general said Cushman had “refused to comply with subpoenas for information related to his appraisals of three specific Trump properties: Seven Springs Estate, Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles, and 40 Wall Street.”

“Cushman & Wakefield’s work for Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization is clearly relevant to our investigation, and we are pleased that the court has upheld it,” James said in a statement Monday. “Our investigation will continue undeterred.

In its own statement on Monday, Cushman & Wakefield said: “While we acknowledge today’s ruling, any suggestion that Cushman & Wakefield has failed to respond in good faith to the Attorney General’s investigation remains fundamentally false.”

“We made clear during the hearing that our firm has devoted significant time, resources and expense in our efforts to cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation, including the sharing of tens of thousands of items of information,” the company said. “Once again, Cushman & Wakefield affirms that we stand behind our appraisals and appraisers.”