Donald Trump now owes NY AG Letitia James $80K as Appellate Court tells him to keep paying

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Donald Trump now owes NY AG Letitia James $80K as Appellate Court tells him to keep paying
Former President Donald Trump smiles as he speaks at a rally in Selma, NC, on April 9, 2022, left. The accumulating Benjamins that Trump owes to NY AG Letitia James, right.Chris Seward/AP, left. LM Otero/AP, right.
  • Donald Trump had asked to stop paying a $10K-a-day fine for failing to turn over business documents to NY AG Letitia James.
  • On Tuesday, a Manhattan appellate judge said no, ordering him to keep paying even as he appeals the fine.
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Donald Trump must keep paying New York Attorney General Letitia James a $10,000-a-day fine for failing to comply with her subpoena for his personal business documents, an appellate judge in Manhattan ruled Tuesday.

Trump had asked the appellate court to quickly halt the fine while he appeals the lower court contempt order that set the mounting penalty, which as of Tuesday had reached $80,000.

In turning down that request — for now — Judge Tanya R. Kennedy said a full appellate panel would take up the question at an unspecified date.

"Interim application denied and the motion referred to a full Bench for determination," Kennedy wrote, without elaboration.

Tuesday's is Trump's second failed attempt to end the costly fine.

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Last week, the lower court judge who set the fine, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, declined to accept a sworn, 1-page affidavit from Trump, who had offered it in hopes of reversing Engoron's contempt order.

The affidavit said only that Trump had no more documents to give to the AG's probe of his business, and that any remaining documents would be in the possession of the Trump Organization.

"I'm disappointed that Mr. Trump hasn't been more forthcoming," Engoron said during a virtual conference on Friday. "Where did he keep files? I'm assuming it wasn't all in his head?"

In his written opinion, Engoron called the affidavit "insufficient" due to its lack of details.

"Notably," the judge ruled, "it fails to state where he kept his files, how his files were stored in the regular course of business, who had access to such files, what, if any, the retention policy was for such files, and, importantly, where he believes such files are currently located.

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Tuesday was an expensive day for Trump, as far as fines from Attorneys General go.

Earlier in the day, his real estate business, the Trump Organization, agreed to pay s $750,000 fine to settle a lawsuit brought by the AG in the District of Columbia, Karl Racine, who has alleged that in 2017, his inaugural committee paid vastly inflated fees to his Trump International Hotel.

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