Alina Habba, an attorney for Donald Trump, says they will file an appeal of New York State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron”™s decision that Trump is in contempt of court and must pay a fine of $10,000 for every day he fails to turn over documents that had been subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“We respectfully disagree with the court”™s decision,” Habba said in a statement. “All documents responsive to the subpoena were produced to the attorney general months ago.”
James had argued in court that although Trump turned over a handful of documents, many more should have been produced. James contended that the Trump side made little or no effort to locate documents relevant to James”™ investigation into possible tax, bank and insurance fraud involving Trump, his children and the Trump Organization.
The investigation focuses on Trump-owned real estate parcels including the Seven Springs Estate in Westchester.
Judge Engoron previously ordered Trump to produce the documents that James wanted no later than March 31. When Trump failed to do so, James asked the court to hold him in contempt, which Engoron did on April 25.
In a second ruling, Engoron ordered real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to comply with subpoenas from James”™ office related to the investigation. Engoron ordered Cushman to produce documents related to its real estate work for the Trump Organization and turn them over to James”™ office by May 27.
Cushman provided real estate services in connection with Trump Organization properties for many years, according to James. Those services included appraisals and brokerage services for properties, including in Westchester.
One area being looked at by James investigation is whether different values were used for a property depending on what was going to be done. Examples might be placing a high value on property that was going to be used in a conservation easement and a tax deduction sought while having given the same property a low value for purposes of determining real estate taxes. James has not alleged wrongdoing by Cushman.
James told the court that the first subpoena with which Cushman had refused to comply was issued on September 30, 2021, and seeks information and documents concerning Cushman”™s relationship with the Trump Organization. The second subpoena, issued on February 16, 2022, sought additional appraisals from five Cushman appraisers who prepared certain reports.
James said that Cushman prepared two valuations for the Trump Organization of the Seven Springs Estate, which is in New Castle, North Castle and Bedford. In a court filing, James said that her investigators wanted to determine whether the appraisals done for Trump were done in a manner consistent with appraisals the company had prepared for other clients. The court filing explained, in part:
“The first valuation was conducted in July 2014 pursuant to a written valuation engagement; the result was conveyed orally to the client. The second valuation was an appraisal issued in March 2016, valuing Seven Springs as of December 1, 2015. That appraisal was submitted to the Internal Revenue Service to obtain a tax benefit from a conservation easement donation on the Seven Springs property.”
James also was seeking information related to the January 13, 2021, disclosure by Cushman that it had decided to no longer do business with the Trump Organization.
