Trump lawyers detail document hunt in dispute over contempt of verdict

NEW YORK – Donald Trump’s legal team wants to overturn a contempt decision and a $10,000-a-day fine against the former president over a subpoena for documents related to a New York civil investigation into his business dealings and says they are conducting a detailed search of what is relevant have performed files.

A new 66-page court filing on Friday describes efforts by Trump’s attorneys to produce documents requested by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating whether Trump misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses in financial statements for over 100,000 a decade.

Trump has called the investigation a political witch hunt and recently called James, who is black, a “racist” and said the courts are “biased, unyielding and utterly unfair”.

Last week, an appeals judge in New York denied his request to stay the fine while Trump appealed the decision.

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In the most recent court filing, Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said the subpoena responses were complete and accurate and that no relevant documents or information had been withheld.

Habba conducted searches of Trump’s offices and private quarters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., but found no relevant documents, which had not yet been produced. The filing also included detailed searches of other locations, including filing cabinets and storage areas at the Trump Organization’s offices in New York.

In a separate affidavit accompanying the filing, Trump stated that there are no relevant documents that have not already been submitted.

He added that he owned two cell phones: an iPhone for personal use, which he submitted for a subpoena search in March and then resubmitted in May; plus a second phone he recently got that is only used for posting on Truth Social, the social media network he started after being banned from Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.

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In a previous court decision, Habba called the contempt order and fine “ruthless and unjustifiable.”