Judge rejects Trump’s affidavit saying he would not have documents sought by New York’s legal professional general

The one-page signed affidavit filed with the courtroom Friday was Trump's unsuccessful try to end the civil contempt and day by day fine of $10,000 per day imposed on him earlier this week by New York state Decide Arthur Engoron.

"Mr. Trump's private affidavit is completely devoid of any helpful element. Notably, it fails to state where he stored his information, how his information had been stored in the common course of business, who had entry to such recordsdata, what, if any, the retention policy was for such recordsdata, and, importantly, where he believes such recordsdata are currently positioned," he wrote. The choose also found the sworn assertion from Trump's attorney unsatisfactory.

The decide previously stated Trump may finish the contempt if he complied with the subpoena or him or his attorneys detailed their efforts to search for documents sought by the subpoena. He called Trump's lawyer's earlier response "boilerplate."

In the sworn assertion signed April 27, Trump wrote, "To one of the best of my knowledge, (i) I don't have any of the paperwork requested in the subpoena dated December 1, 2021 in my private possession." He said any data could be in the possession of the Trump Group and he has authorized them to comply with the subpoena. The previous President has additionally appealed that order.

Additionally they mentioned affidavits from Trump's attorneys present some new details about their search, but "they are inadequate to purge the finding of contempt."

If after the evaluate is complete and if no new data are recovered, the attorney common's workplace said it would recommend that Trump did not preserve information.

"It is simply not believable that Mr. Trump authored solely three documents dealing with the value of his belongings and his wealth," they wrote.

The attorney general's office mentioned extra information still must be searched by Trump's lawyer or HaystackID, the third-party agency employed for doc manufacturing, before they'd be satisfied. Amongst these recordsdata: all of Trump's laborious copy information in Trump Tower or its off-site storage, all the paper information of Trump's executive assistants, all digital gadgets, including cell phones and computer systems, belonging to Trump and his assistants, and every property where Trump maintains a personal workplace or residence.

HaystackID will complete a lot of the overview of supplies at Trump Tower by Could 6, the attorney normal's office said. They famous that Haystack identified two flip cellphones belonging to Trump however the lawyer general's office mentioned since Trump reportedly used a smartphone "he apparently has, or should have had in the past, one or more other telephones that he obtained for private use."

In addition, investigators took situation with Trump's legal professional counting on earlier searches conducted by the Trump Organization's lawyer in response to earlier subpoenas.

In a sworn affidavit, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba, mentioned she had checked among the information and had gone to Florida to speak with Trump himself. She mentioned Trump didn't have an documents at his houses in Bedminster, New Jersey, or Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

This story has been updated with additional details.