NEW YORK — In a court docket enchantment, a lawyer for Donald Trump mentioned Monday it’s “unconscionable and indefensible” for the ex-president to be held in contempt and fined $10,000 a day for failing to show over paperwork he does not possess.
Legal professional Alina Habba made the argument in a submission to a New York state appeals court docket requesting that the contempt order and wonderful be suspended till the problem could be heard by appeals judges.
The arguments have been submitted per week after State Supreme Courtroom Decide Arthur Engoron in Manhattan mentioned Trump and his legal professionals had failed to indicate they carried out a correct seek for data sought by New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James, a Democrat, in a civil probe of his enterprise dealings.
James had requested the court docket to carry Trump in contempt after he failed to provide any paperwork to fulfill a March 31 deadline to fulfill the phrases of the subpoena. She has mentioned her investigation has discovered proof that Trump could have misstated the worth of belongings like skyscrapers and golf programs on monetary statements for over a decade.
Trump, a Republican, has been preventing James in court docket over her investigation, which he has known as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Habba instructed Engoron per week in the past that she met with Trump to make sure he had no data and there have been none to be discovered. On Friday, she submitted extra paperwork explaining the doc search, together with an affidavit through which Trump claimed he has no paperwork. Engoron criticized the affidavit as missing intimately.
In Monday’s written arguments submitted to the appellate division of the state’s trial court docket, Habba wrote that the each day wonderful “is just not solely unwarranted, it is usually patently improper and impermissible by legislation.”
She mentioned Trump and his representatives had carried out a “diligent, thorough and complete search” for every part sought within the subpoena and supplied full and correct responses to the lawyer normal. She mentioned the extra submissions final week amounted to “extraordinary efforts to conform.”
“Given these circumstances, it’s unconscionable and indefensible for Appellant to be held in contempt in any method, should much less on the inordinate expense of $10,000 per day,” she mentioned.
The written submission Monday got here after Habba notified the appeals court docket final week that she was interesting. Trump can be interesting Engoron’s Feb. 17 ruling requiring him to reply questions below oath. Oral arguments in that enchantment are scheduled for Could 11.
A message looking for remark from the lawyer normal’s workplace was not instantly returned.
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Related Press Author Michael R. Sisak contributed to this story.
