Donald Trump no longer despises the court, a New York judge ruled on Wednesday. Judge Arthur Engoron, who said he despised the former president on April 25 for being slow to respond to the political summons issued by the New York Attorney General, said he now met the conditions required to lift the sanction after a lengthy trial. . Trump paid $ 110,000 in fines last month as a result of his contempt finding. The money, which was paid directly to Attorney General Letitia James, will continue to be kept in a bail account, while Trump is appealing the initial contempt finding, Engoron said Wednesday. Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., are due to testify in James’ investigation, which begins July 15, after the state Supreme Court rejected his last attempt to avoid a summons. “While we are pleased that the court is lifting the contempt finding, we argue that it was completely unjustified and inappropriate from the outset,” said Trump attorney Alina Hampa. “We will proceed with our appeal to ensure justice for our client.” A message asking for comment was left in James’s office. The attorney general asked Engoron to find Trump in contempt of court, as he did not provide any documents to meet the March 31 deadline to meet the terms of her summons. Engoron fined Trump $ 10,000 a day for non-compliance, but the fine stopped accumulating in early May when the dispute seemed to be approaching. Engoron initially agreed on May 11 to lift Trump’s defamation order if he paid the fines and met a number of other conditions, including submitting affidavits describing his search efforts and his company’s document retention policies. Engoron and the attorney general’s office were dissatisfied with the level of detail in Trump’s submissions, leaving the contempt finding valid as new affidavits were being prepared. The judge also asked a company Trump hired to help with the investigation, HaystackID, to complete the investigation of 17 boxes stored off-site storage, to report its findings and to provide any relevant documents. The process was completed last month, according to James’s office. Engoron suspended the fine on May 6, when Trump’s lawyers filed 66 pages of court documents detailing his and his lawyers’ efforts to locate the summoned files. He had previously warned that he could restore it, retroactively on May 7, if his conditions were not met. James, a Democrat, said her three-year investigation revealed evidence that Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, had misrepresented the value of assets such as skyscrapers and golf courses in financial statements for more than a decade. Her summons sought documents about his annual financial statements, his development projects, and even communications with Forbes magazine, where he sought to promote his image as a wealthy businessman. Trump, a Republican, has denied the allegations. He called James’ research “racist” and “witch-hunt” politically motivated. James is Black. Trump’s lawyers have accused her of selective prosecution. Trump’s lawyers say James is using her political investigation to gain access to information that could then be used against him in a parallel criminal investigation by Manhattan Attorney Alvin Bragg, also a Democrat. A federal judge last month dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump against James, dismissing his claim that he had targeted him out of political hostility and allowing the political inquiry into his business practices to continue. At a court hearing on the matter, a lawyer in James’s office said the findings could support legal action against the former president, his company or both. Attorney Andrew Amer said at a hearing in Trump’s lawsuit against James that “there was a clear body of evidence that could support the prosecution,” although no final decision has been made on whether to file a lawsuit. such treatment. .
