‘Trump has willfully disobeyed a lawful order of this court,’ New York judge says as $10,000 per-day fines start

The judge also called “woefully inadequate” the claim by Trump’s lawyer Habba during Monday’s hearing that a search for the records had not turned up anything responsive to the subpoena.

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

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

The affidavit that Habba gave Engoron about the search “provided the Court with no basis to find that the search has been a thorough one or that it had been conducted in a good faith effort to provide those necessary records to plaintiff,” the judge wrote.

“Not only did Mr. Trump fail to submit an affidavit himself, which this Court believes would have been the best practice … but the attorney affirmation submitted on behalf of Mr. Trump contained only conclusory 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 about its appraisals of several Trump Organization properties.

The attorney general said Cushman had “refused to comply with subpoenas for information related to its appraisals of three specific Trump-owned properties — the 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 has now been confirmed by the court,” James said in a statement Monday. “Our investigation will continue undeterred.

In its own statement Monday, Cushman Wakefield said, “While we acknowledge today’s ruling, any suggestion that Cushman Wakefield has not responded in good faith to the Attorney General’s investigation continues to be fundamentally untrue.”

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

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/26/trump-contempt-of-court-fines-start-for-new-york-investigation.html