Donald Trump must pay a fine of $10,000 per day until he obeys a subpoena and surrenders documents relating to his business practices to the New York Attorney General’s office, a NY judge has ruled. State judge Arthur Engoron said Monday the ex US president had to cough up the daily fine starting Tuesday, after he failed to hand over papers needed by Attorney General Letitia James for a 2019 probe into alleged improper valuation of assets for financial benefits.
In a written ruling, Engoron said James’ office had ‘satisfied its burden of demonstrating that Mr Trump wilfully disobeyed a lawful court order’ and imposed a daily fine on the former president.
The judge reasoned further delays could result in the Attorney General’s office ‘being unable to pursue certain causes of action’ it could otherwise. Engoron said the probe had already turned up evidence that assets, including golf clubs and a penthouse apartment, had been improperly valued.
“Each day that passes without compliance further prejudices [the attorney general’s office], as the statutes of limitations continue to run,” Engoron wrote, adding that the delays could result in James’ office “being unable to pursue certain causes of action that it otherwise would.”
Donald Trump, a Republican who served a hugely controversial four-year term as the United States’ 45th president, has denied wrongdoing and slammed the probe as ‘politically motivated’.
Attorney General Letitia James is a Democrat.
Trump’s attorney Alina Habba did not immediately offer a comment, Reuters reported. After the Monday hearing, Habba said Trump would appeal.
Trump has previously lost a bid to quash the subpoena, and then failed to produce the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.
In the past, James has said the investigation found ‘significant evidence’ the Trump Organization included misleading asset valuations in more than a decade of its financial statements.
Reuters reported that James’ office had questioned company valuation of the Trump brand, as well as golf clubs in New York and Scotland, and Trump’s own New York penthouse.
In some cases the assets were overvalued to get good loan terms and, in other cases, they were undervalued to win tax benefits, the attorney general said.