Trump contempt of court fines start for New York investigation

The check is due now, Mr. Ex-President.

A New York judge said that Donald Trump would have to start paying a fine of $10,000 per day on Tuesday after finding him in contempt of court for failing to comply with a state Attorney General’s Office subpoena for business-related documents.

“Mr. Trump has willfully disobeyed a lawful order of the Court,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in a three-page order Tuesday.

The written order came a day after Engoron held a hearing on the issue and orally ruled that Trump was in contempt of court.

Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the Trump Organization and Trump in connection with allegations that the company improperly manipulated the stated valuations of various real estate assets to gain more favorable financial terms for loans and insurance, and to lower their tax liabilities.

The Trump Organization denies any wrongdoing, and the Republican Trump himself has accused James, a Democrat, of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Engoron on Tuesday wrote that “each day that passes without compliance” by Trump with James’ subpoena “further prejudices” the attorney general’s civil investigation, “as the statute of limitations continue to run and may result in [James] being unable to pursue certain causes of action that [she] otherwise would.”

The judge said Trump would have to pay $10,000 per day until he satisfies the judge that he has complied with the subpoena. The order left open the possibility that Trump could satisfy the subpoena by detailing in a sworn statement that he had conducted a thorough search for the records, which his lawyer has claimed he was unable to find.

Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said Monday that she will file an appeal of Engoron’s contempt-of-court finding against the former president and the related daily fine.

In February, Engoron had ordered Trump to produce certain documents sought by James through a subpoena.

James earlier this month asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt for failing to surrender those documents, and for instead waiting until the deadline for the order on March 31 to raise objections to the subpoena, and for claiming to the AG only then that Trump was unable to locate any of the documents.

Engoron, in his order Tuesday, wrote that Trump had waived his right “to raise boilerplate objections to the subpoena by not timely” making them known when he previously tried to get the judge to quash the subpoena.

“Having stipulated to produce all the documents by March 31, 2022, Mr….