Donald Trump accuses NY AGLetitia James of "publicity stunt" threats in court filing Tuesday night.- James wants Trump held in contempt for failing to turn over years of personal business documents.
Donald Trump is pushing back against
Trump has, to date, personally turned over only 10 of his own business documents, both sides agree. For his failure to turn over a single page more, James wants a Manhattan judge to hold Trump in contempt and fine him $10,000 a day.
But whatever he hasn't personally turned over is "in [the] possession, custody or control of
Further, the Office of the Attorney General — the OAG for short — should have known better than to think Trump would independently turn over stacks of his own paperwork, the papers say.
"Despite feigning surprise and outrage in its motion papers, the OAG was fully aware that [Trump] was unlikely to be producing any responsive documents but, rather, would permissibly rely upon the Trump Organizations's production," Trump attorney Alina Habba writes in her 27-page filing.
Some 900,000 documents have been turned over by the Trump Organization, both sides also agree.
"The OAG's main gripe with [Trump's] subpoena response seems to be the lack of documents that were independently produced" by Trump, Habba continues.
"While this result may be to the OAG's dissatisfaction, the fact is that a diligent search was performed and found that [Trump] is not in possession of any of the requested documents.
"Further, as was expressly stated in the Subpoena's instructions, [Trump] was not obligated to produce documents in the possession, custody or control of the Trump Organization," she writes.
The AG has said in her own previous filings that the personal Trump documents she seeks had been stored, as hard-copy originals, in file cabinets in Trump Tower, as described to her office in a deposition last summer by Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten.
But Trump, his lawyers, and "numerous aides, representatives, co-counsel, and others" have all looked for anything else he needed to turn over, Habba says. And nothing's there — not a single page.
"The search failed to identify a single document in the possession or custody of [Trump] that was responsive to the OAG's requests," Habba writes, "at least none that were required to be separately produced by [Trump.[]
James has sought Trump's personal business documents for two years, first through a broad subpoena of The Trump Organization, and later, since December, through a separate subpoena of Trump himself.
Trump and James are also warring over a separate set of the Attorney General's subpoenas, which seek to compel testimony from Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr.
In Tuesday night's response, Habba calls the proposed fine a "coercive" and "excessive" remedy.
"The [Office of the Attorney General's] request for a daily fine of $10,000 is a grossly excessive amount," the papers argue.
James' $10,000-a-day contempt motion — and an accompanying "barrage of press statements" — came "without warning," blindsiding Trump and creating a "public spectacle," Habba says.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, James' office went "so far as to refuse [Trump's] counsel's request for a simple phone call," Habba complains.
"Given the OAG's recalcitrant behavior, it is fair to question the OAG's motive in bringing the [contempt request], which appears to be little more than a contrived publicity stunt."
James' office has until Friday to respond to Habba's papers. They will be in court in Manhattan on Friday before New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to hash things out further.