NY AG Letitia James hits Donald Trump again over his failure to turn over personal business documents

• NY AG Letitia James is demanding anew that Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. be deposed.
• Donald Trump's testimony is vital, she says, since he's turned over "only a handful" of personal papers.

New York Attorney General Letitia James continued a pressure campaign Monday night against Donald Trump and his years-long failure to turn over personal business documents to her probe of the Trump Organization.

In a new appeals brief, her office demanded again that he, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump, Jr. all sit for depositions in the probe.

But the filing singles out the former president, saying the AG's office has recieved hundreds of thousands of documents relating to Trump's real estate business — but "only a handful" from Trump's own files.

That lack of words on paper only makes his spoken testimony more vital, James argues in Monday night's filing with an appellate court in Manhattan — the latest volley in the AG's three year probe into The Trump Organization.

At a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing earlier Monday, lawyers for James had also decried the lack of personal paperwork from Trump.

Out of some 900,000 documents turned over to James office by the Trump Organization so far, only 10 came from the former president's personal or "custodial" files, a lawyer from James' office revealed at the hearing.

"Mr. Trump regularly reviewed printed material and communicated with employees via sticky notes," Monday night's filing said, referencing a prior deposition by Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten.

"Mr. Trump's assistants maintained his files in cabinets in the Trump Organization's offices," the filing continued.

"To date, the Trump Organization appears not to have searched these files to any meaningful degree despite OAG's subpoenaing these documents," Monday night's filing complains.

Insider has previously reported that the coveted, sticky-note-bristling cache has for decades resided in some two-dozen beige metal filing cabinets which line a wall on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

The three Trumps have fought being deposed since they were subpoenaed in December.

They have argued in court hearings and filings, including in an appeal filed earlier this month, that anything they say during a deposition in James' civil probe could be used against them in a criminal probe her office is also running.

But in Monday's filing, the AG argues that the Trumps can invoke their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination — and as the former president's son, Eric Trump, did 500 times during a deposition before James' office in October of 2020— but they must sit.

"At their depositions, should they so choose, [the Trumps] may exercise their right to decline to answer any questions calling for responses that may incriminate them," James wrote in Monday night's 80-page filing.

In pushing back against testifying, the Trumps have said that a recorded deposition showing them pleading the fifth could some day "prejudice" a civil jury against them.

James also argued in the new filing that it's too early for the Trumps to claim, as they have repeatedly, that her probe is a political vendetta and that they are victims of "selective prosecution."

There is no prosecution of any sort, she explains — yet.

"No enforcement action exists and OAG" — the office of the attorney general — "is simply investigating to determine whether to bring civil fraud charges," James wrote.

The Trumps have likewise failed to prove James is being "selective," she wrote.

"For example, they failed to show that OAG has declined to investigate or take enforcement action against entities or individuals similarly situated to the Trump Organization or its principles," she wrote.

James has repeatedly said in court filings that Trump played fast and loose with numbers over the years, inflating the value of his assets when applying for business loans and insurance, and deflating the values of some of the same assets to reduce his real estate taxes.

She repeated that claim in Monday night's brief.

"So far," she wrote, "the investigation has uncovered significant evidence potentially indicating that, for more than a decade, these financial statements relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits — including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions — on terms more favorable than the true facts warranted."

Deposing the three Trumps is necessary "to help reach a final determination about whether there has been fraud," she wrote, "and who may be responsible for any such fraud."

The next step in the deposition battle will be for the Appellate Division in Manhattan to set a date for oral arguments.