The 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, recently appealed a state judge’s decision to fine him up to $10,000 per day for refusing to comply with the efforts of Attorney General Letitia James to subpoena the Trump Organization for its various records, per a recent CNN report.
According to Alina Habba, who serves as an attorney for the Trump administration, no records were available to turn over. Moreover, as Trump currently fights the fine, he may not be liable for paying any cash to the state of New York as his appeal plays out in court.
Previously, Trump lost a battle in court to strike the subpoena, and he also did not proceed requested documents by a March 3 deadline, which was subsequently extended to March 31 per his attorney’s request.
The New York AG’s office had initiated a probe into the Trump Organization in order to evaluate whether or not it defrauded various lenders, borrowers, and tax authorities who were reliant upon the organization’s financial statements for accuracy.
As a result, AG James requested for Judge Engoron to hold Trump in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in December.
Trump Organization has been the subject of a civil investigation over the past three years, namely when Trump was still serving as president. Current AG James had run on a platform dedicated to going after the Republican President for alleged misdeeds.
However, Trump has long accused the investigation as completely partisan in nature, and he continues to deny any form of willful wrongdoing.
On her part, James claims that the investigation has yielded “significant evidence” that Trump Organization did not assign proper values to different assets over the course of a decade.
Nonetheless, Trump remains the preferred favorite in a hypothetical match with Biden in a 2024 rematch, in large part due to the opposite approach Trump has taken to key issues.
“The very same people who piously claimed to be defending democracy are the ones throwing open your borders, surrendering your sovereignty, defunding your police, prosecuting your politicians,” Trump recently declared, “like nobody’s ever seen before, by the way.”
