On Monday, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay a $ 10,000-a-day fine after finding he was contempt of court for failing to hand over documents requested by Attorney General Letitia James as part of a political inquiry that is separate from the resulted in the Trump Organization and its longtime financial director, Allen Weiselberg, facing criminal prosecution. Two days later, Mr. Trump filed an affidavit stating that the searches for the documents had been conducted in an effort to “clear” the contempt and avoid the $ 10,000-a-day fine, but Judge Engoron rejected the testimony by order of two Mr. Trump’s statement “lacks completely useful detail.” “In particular, it fails to state where it kept its files, how its files were stored during its normal operation, who had access to such files, what, if any, was the retention policy for such files and, most importantly, where it believes such “Files are currently being found,” he wrote. Judge Engoron also noted that the former president’s statement “also does not state whether he misled his personal electronic devices for imaging and searching” and ordered Trump to file a further affidavit in court detailing the facts. He also denied allegations by Trump’s lawyer that discussions with the former president about the location of these documents and devices were covered by a lawyer’s privilege, and that Mr. Trump’s claim that Ms. James’s office was not prejudiced from its failure. to comply with the summons. “Every day that passes without compliance further prejudges the OAG, as the statute of limitations continues to run and may result in the OAG not being able to pursue certain causes of action that it would otherwise have done,” he wrote.
