Maybe this is going to become the go-to tactic used against wealthy, celebrity clients to get them to comply with the rule of law: hit ’em where it hurts the most. Alex Jones was finally fined $25,000 a day until he finally showed up in a deposition and now the New York attorney general is asking a judge to fine Donald Trump $10,000 for each day he continues to not comply with a previous court order to provide documentation. Maybe that will motivate him. Or, maybe he’ll just send out another email to his troops and tell them he needs to raise $10K a day and they give him $15K. That could well take place, don’t laugh. Daily Beast:
Following a legal clown show on Feb. 17, New York State Judge Arthur F. Engoron ordered the former president, Don Jr., and Ivanka Trump to sit down for sworn testimony for their alleged role in a long-running business fraud scheme. That order is now making its way through the state’s appellate courts.
Importantly, however, the judge also ordered the former president to turn over documents related to his supposedly bogus statements of financial condition—which his own accountants at the firm Mazars USA recently disavowed as completely unreliable.
Trump was also ordered to comply with the Dec. 1 subpoena by turning over “documents and communications” related to his financing of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, planned development of the expansive Seven Springs Estate in upstate New York, and any claims of extravagant wealth he made to Forbes Magazine.
Now the state’s attorney general is asking the judge to increase pressure on Trump for still not turning over those documents. According to James’ office, the evidence was due on March 3 and Trump got an extension he asked for to push that back to the end of March. But as of April 7, investigators still don’t have it in their possession.
“This court’s order was not an opening bid for a negotiation or an invitation for a new round of challenges to the subpoena,” Andrew Amer, attorney at the AG’s office, wrote in the filing on Thursday. “The ship has long since sailed on Mr. Trump’s ability to raise any such objections.”
He may have no ability to raise the objections but that doesn’t mean he won’t. He’s got a lot of pans on the fire right now, this investigation, the January 6 Committee may call him to testify, he’s still being investigated for voter fraud in Georgia, and the Manhattan D.A.’s investigation is still officially open, although no one seems to be sure where it’s going.
And of course there is the sublime irony here, that a good portion of the electorate has no problem voting for a man who’s up to his eyeballs in litigation. I don’t see how democracy can endure on those facts. This is the melting point, right here, to want to reelect a crook.
It seems like, with Trump the extreme example, a totally uninformed, blithering idiot, waving his hands, using facial talking points and has an obvious criminal history, defines the new normal prerequisite for the fast failing GOP leadership …
It seems the lawlessness displayed by a growing number of GOP stars using verbal slams against our REAL President, pushed and repeated by the vermin FOX News do-wrongs, is OK if you are a Republican lizard …
Darrel, I sent you an email a few days ago. Did you get it? Contact me via email, pretty please. Fank Yew.
Only 10K/day? Bullshit. 10K PLUS jail time until he produces what he is LEGALLY REQ’D to provide. Pretty much have had enough of this shit-gibbon. Maybe it is time for those of us who actually give a shit about this country to rise up and revolt against these pieces of shit. It doesn’t seem like the normal channels are working.
Um, care to tell us how he’s supposed to be put in jail? He is NOT in New York State at present. He is now a legal resident of the State of Florida (and even if DeSantis wanted to extradite Trump, he’d be committing political suicide with his own base–almost every last one of whom is a dyed-in-the-wool Trumper). The only truly meaningful way that Trump could be put in jail for defying the court’s order would be for him to be arrested when he got off a plane for a rally in New York (and you might wonder why he hasn’t yet held one of his rallies in NY, despite getting more than 3.2 million votes there in 2020).
Also, I think extradition laws are a bit murky when it comes to FINANCIAL crimes. Murder, treason, kidnapping? Yeah. All of those are among the genuine crimes covered by extradition law but the only financial-related crimes that I can find where extradition might apply involve money laundering (but that tends to fall under Federal jurisdiction) and tax evasion (again, mostly dealing with federal taxes). But Trump has spent the past couple of years claiming the New York case is “politically motivated” and, unfortunately, a state does NOT have to extradite a suspect if there’s the possibility of political motivation (meaning DeSantis could tell New York what they could do with the extradition request).
Trump will NOT even be considering setting foot in New York as long as there’s the slightest possibility that he’d be put in jail (for even a minute).
You can fantasize all you want, but we won’t see Trump in jail until after he’s actually convicted of a crime for which he’s been charged.