Donald Trump Held in Contempt, Fined $10K Per Day Until He Complies With Probe

Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay a fine of $10,000 per day until he furnishes the documents.

Donald Trump. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@SteveRustad1)

A New York judge on Monday, 25 April, held former US president Donald Trump in contempt for failing to produce relevant documents for a probe into his business practices.

Justice Arthur Engoron further ordered Trump to pay a fine of $10,000 per day until he furnishes the documents, reported BBC.

Engoron said, a contempt finding was needed due to "repeated failures" in the handing over of materials. It is not clear if Trump did a proper search to find the responsive documents, he noted.

Trump's plea to quash a subpoena from the state Attorney General Letitia James was dismissed, following which he missed providing the documents before a court-ordered deadline of 3 March. The date was later extended to 31 March at his lawyer's request.

"Mr Trump... I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt," Judge Engoron said, as per Reuters. Trump, however, was not present in the court room.

Stating that the court's ruling was not acceptable, Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, said the former president intends to apply for an appeal over the contempt ruling.

Background

The case pertains to allegations of whether the former president's Trump Organisation misstated the values of its properties in order to obtain favourable bank loans and tax deductions. James, a Democrat, is investigating the case.

She reportedly said that the probe which has been on for more than three years has found "significant evidence" to say that Trump's company made misleading asset valuations in its financial statements for more than 10 years.

Welcoming the court's ruling, she said, in a statement, on Monday, "Today's ruling makes it clear that no one is above law."

Trump, meanwhile, has denied the allegations and has dubbed the probe as "witch hunt" and has said it is politically motivated. His lawyer called the investigation a "fishing expedition".

Habba told the court that Trump had indeed complied with the subpoena, but the problem was that he was not able to find the documents responsive to James. Responding to this, Judge Engoron asked her to submit an affidavit detailing the search carried out by them to find the documents.

She has previously held enquiries on how the Trump Organisation valued Trump Brand and its assets and properties like the golf clubs at Scotland and Manhattan and Trump's penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan's Trump Tower.

The court also subpoenaed Trump and two of his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr and ordered them to submit their testimonies before James. A appeal is pending for the testimony, reported Reuters.

The fine of $10,000 a day is not for punishing Trump, instead it is only for pushing him to comply with the subpoena, stated Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel working in James's office.

In a separate case, Trump's assets are also being probed in Manhattan.

(With inputs from BBC, Reuters.)