- A Manhattan judge found Donald Trump in contempt of court and ordered he pay a $10,000-a-day fine.
- NY AG Letitia James had asked for the fine to "coerce" him into turning over personal business documents.
- James is probing whether Trump fudged his numbers in applying for loans and tax breaks.
A Manhattan judge on Monday found that Donald Trump is in contempt of court and must pay a $10,000-a-day fine to the New York attorney general until he is in compliance with subpoenas that demand his personal business documents.
Trump has failed to show he has conducted "a proper, thorough search" for paperwork Attorney General Letitia James is seeking in her three-year probe of the former president's real estate and branding company, the Trump Organization, the judge ruled.
"Mr. Trump, I know you take your business seriously," New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said from the bench. "But I take mine seriously. I hearby hold you in civil contempt and fine you $10,000 a day."
Trump lawyer Alina Habba had argued that Trump has already turned over everything he has. She said after court that she believed she could clear the matter up quickly.
"We're going to wait for the order" to be filed in the offiicial court docket, on Tuesday, she said after court.
"If it's a simple order, saying 'sign an affidavit' [asserting how and where Trump's documents were searched for, as requested by the judge,] I intend to comply," she said.
"It could be resolved in an hour," she said. "It looks like they're asking for an affidavit."
Engoron had hinted at how he was leaning earlier Monday, when he told one of AG's Letitia James's lawyers that it's fully within Trump's right to say that James already has everything she's asked for — but that such an assertion is not enough.
"He can't produce what he doesn't have. But you can't just say, 'I don't have anything,'" the judge said. "You have to say where you looked."
The AG has complained in court documents as recently as Friday night that Trump has failed to say whether a search for documents has been made at specific locations of interest.
Those include Trump's so-called "chron" files — meaning hardcopy documents stored in chronological order after having crossed Trump's desk, as described to James' office in a deposition last summer by Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten.
"Mr. Trump's hard copy calendars" are also missing, the latest AG filing had noted.
So are "files located in cabinets outside Mr. Trump's office," in "the storage room by Mr. Trump's office," and in "the file cabinets located on the 25th and 26th floors," the filing adds — apparent references to the Trump Organization headquarters in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Earlier in the hearing, Engoron singled out Trump's own failure to sign an affadavit swearing personally that he has searched everywhere, and found nothing James wants.
"That's the 800-pound gorilla in the room here," the judge quipped. "Why don't we have an affadavit from him? Why not get an affadavit from him?"
"I would be happy to do so," if that was required, Habba responded. "Because he doesn't have anything left to give."
When the judge asked how Habba knows "he'll swear to one?" Habba answered "Because my client is an honest person, much to the dismay of some of the people in this room...we have have nothing to hide."
The judge responded by noting that "there is a difference between saying something — and saying something under oath."
But after the hearing, Habba said she would not be asking Trump to swear such an affadavit.
"I would be shocked if that was asked for," she told reporters. 'I'm his counsel. I'd be more than happy to sign the affidavit."
