Judge denies Trump's request to stay $10,000 fine

WASHINGTON — A New York appellate judge denied former President Donald Trump's request to suspend a $10,000 fine while he appeals a lower court ruling that found him in contempt for failing to produce documents for a state attorney general investigation of his company.

Trump owes $10,000 a day since April 26 because he didn't submit documents subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in her civil investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices.

On Monday, Trump's lawyers asked the appellate court to stay the fine while he appealed state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron's ruling. On Tuesday, appellate judge Tanya Kennedy denied the motion. She said the full court will decide whether to halt the fine later this month.

Kennedy's decision came a few days after Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, appealed to Engoron over his civil contempt ruling.

Trump argued in a two-paragraph affidavit that he did not have the requested documents and should not have to pay the fine.

Engoron resisted Trump's attempt to remove the daily fine, saying that the former president's affidavit was devoid of any useful detail. 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 where he believes such files are currently located, the judge wrote on Friday. He ordered Trump to provide a detailed affidavit answering all those questions in order to purge his contempt. In a statement, Habba said that Engoron completely disregarded the detailed affidavits that demonstrate the meticulous efforts to effectuate this search and improperly held my client in contempt for a violation that he did not commit. On April 25th, Engoron found Trump in civil contempt and instituted a hefty fine, which had been requested by James as a way to pressure the former president to hand over the documents she is seeking.

James' office has been looking into whether Trump and his business manipulated financial statements and uncovered substantial evidence establishing misrepresentations in Mr. Trump's financial statements provided to banks, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump and his company denied any wrongdoing. Trump called the New York courts biased, unyielding and totally unfair, and said Jame's probe is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in history.