Judge fines Trump $10,000 per day for contempt

A New York judge has ordered Trump to be fined 10,000 dollars,942 per day, despite the fact that he was in contempt of court for not producing subpoenaed documents.

The order was part of the New York State Attorney-General's civil investigation into Mr Trump's business practices.

Judge Arthur Engoron said a contempt finding was appropriate because Mr Trump and his lawyers hadn't shown they had conducted a proper search for the records sought by the subpoena.

New York Attorney-General Letitia James, a Democrat, had asked the court to hold Mr Trump in contempt after he missed the March 31, court-imposed deadline to turn over documents.

Mr Trump, a Republican, has been fighting Ms James in court over her investigation, which he has called a politically motivated witch hunt. During oral arguments on Monday, Mr Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, said: Donald Trump does not believe he is above the law. Ms James has been working on a long investigation into the Trump OrganizationTrump Organization, the former president's family company, centering around what she has claimed is a pattern of misleading banks and tax authorities about the value of his properties.

The judge found contempt by the judge, despite a spirited argument by Ms Habba, who insisted repeatedly that she went to great lengths to comply with the subpoena, even going to Florida to ask Mr Trump if he had any documents that would be responsive to the demand.

Ms Habba said that the contempt motion is inappropriate and misleading.

He complied. There are no more documents left to produce by President Trump. She denided the investigation as a political and a fishing expedition, saying that Mr Trump and his companies had turned over more than six million documents and paperwork related to 103 Trump entities over an eight-year period.

We've turned over everything as fast as possible. Ms Habba said that this is a waste of judicial resources.

Mr Trump's spokespeople did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

In court filings, investigators said that Mr Trump may have missed the value of assets such as golf courses and skyscrapers on his financial statements for more than a decade.

A parallel criminal investigation is being conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who is also a Democrat.