NY attorney general seeks contempt citation for Trump in document fight

“Mr. Trump did not comply at all,” James’ lawyers argued in the motion — noting that at the deadline, Trump’s lawyers reported that any relevant documents have been in the custody of the Trump Organization.

“Mr. Trump’s purported ‘Response’ violates the Court’s order it is not full compliance, or any diploma of compliance, but only additional hold off and obfuscation. Mr. Trump ought to now be held in civil contempt and fined in an quantity adequate to coerce his compliance with the Court’s get and compensate [the Office of Attorney General] for its expenses and costs affiliated with this movement.”

James’ office has been investigating Trump and his companies for extra than three many years, but the probe has taken on additional significance in latest weeks after the lead prosecutors on a parallel investigation becoming carried out by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Business office resigned. The New York Times described past month that the prosecutors who give up were being confident that Trump had fully commited crimes and ought to be billed, but District Legal professional Alvin Bragg — who took business office in January — was not persuaded.

With a grand jury convened as element of that exertion set to expire on Thursday, Bragg issued a statement insisting that his investigation marches on. He also appeared to push again versus strategies that he is also danger-averse to choose on Trump.

“Prosecutors fulfilling their duties cannot and do not convey only conditions that are ‘slam dunks,’” Bragg stated. “To the contrary, each case ought to be brought for the right reason — specifically that justice needs it. That is what I’ve carried out all over my profession, regardless of how simple or tough a scenario might be.”

Bragg also promised that if the investigation were being shuttered with out expenses, he would describe that to the community.

“I pledge that the Workplace will publicly state the summary of our investigation — no matter whether we conclude our function without having bringing rates, or go forward with an indictment,” he said in the assertion.

The DA’s place of work is urgent on with a criminal tax fraud scenario filed very last July in opposition to the Trump Firm and its longtime chief money officer, Allen Weisselberg. That case is established for demo on Sept. 26.

Amid the tumult and personnel alterations in the DA’s probe, James has also been turning up the heat recently in her travel to get hold of paperwork that could assistance her place of work establish a fraud situation from the Trump Corporation, his aides and, probably, Trump himself.

A attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, issued a assertion dismissing the contempt motion, which was submitted on Thursday with Arthur Engoron, a New York Supreme Court docket choose who has been dealing with subpoena enforcement matters related to the James investigation.

“We are prepared to adamantly oppose the frivolous and baseless movement submitted by the Lawyer General’s business nowadays,” Habba said. “Our customer has constantly complied with the lots of discovery requests served by the Lawyer General’s business about the several years.”

Later Thursday, Trump launched a assertion calling James “an operative for the Democrat Party” and “an embarrassment to our lawful method.”

The entire scope of the investigations is unclear, but prosecutors have claimed they have evidence of the Trump Organization manipulating genuine estate evaluations for tax and coverage uses. Trump and his agency have denied wrongdoing.

Julia Marsh contributed to this report.