Judge Lifts Contempt Order Against Trump in Civil Inquiry

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

Donald J. Trump was released from a judicial order holding him in contempt of court on Wednesday, ending an embarrassing two-week period for the former president, whose business practices are under civil investigation by the New York state attorney general.

A New York State judge, Arthur F. Engoron, held Mr. Trump in contempt late last month after finding that he had failed to comply with the terms of a December subpoena sent by the attorney general, Letitia James, requesting documents from his personal files. The judge ordered Mr. Trump to pay $10,000 a day until he complied, leading to a $110,000 penalty.

On Wednesday, Justice Engoron withdrew the contempt order, but set a few conditions, including requiring Mr. Trump to pay the fine. The judge ruled that if Mr. Trump and his company did not meet the conditions by May 20, he would reinstate the contempt order and retroactively apply the $10,000-a-day fine.

In an effort to cooperate with the judge’s original contempt order, lawyers for Mr. Trump filed a number of recent court documents attesting to a thorough search of his records. An outside company also assured the judge that it had reviewed a vast number of files — more than 1,300 boxes — including Mr. Trump’s hard-copy calendars, records in file cabinets at the Trump Organization’s offices in Midtown Manhattan and boxes of documents at off-site storage facilities.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/nyregion/trump-contempt-letitia-james.html

[FarPoint]

1. 45.....

He is a "greased pig" for sure....

[brush]

2. WTH? Why give trump a break? The judge should've just left it in place.

Official after official after judge Manhattan DA etc. just keeps giving that criminal traitor break after break.

[YoshidaYui]

3. WILL SOMEONE TELL ME

HOW THIS MOTHER FUCKER GETS AWAY with everything??? DO WE HAVE ANY WORKING JUSTICE DEPARTMENTs IN THIS COUNTRY??

Link to tweet

[iluvtennis]

23. +++ AGREE. n/t

[spudspud]

26. I guess the checks cleared.

[NullTuples]

30. They had to have come from someone else, he never pays people he makes promises to...

[spudspud]

33. Well, Pootie is supposedly the true richest man on Earth, so there's that. /nt

[fightforfreedom]

4. Trump is protected from Satan himself.

He may be Satan himself.

[tosh]

14. My thought exactly.

[dpibel]

5. Hilarious NYT editorializing

I'd say, "ending an embarrassing two-week period for the former president," is way up there on the "Things That Are Impossible" list. If Trump has a superpower, it's immunity from embarrassment. Why would you put that in what is supposed to be a news story.

Also, "In an effort to cooperate with the judge’s original contempt order, lawyers for Mr. Trump filed a number of recent court documents attesting to a thorough search of his records." They did, indeed, file a number of recent court documents. Those court documents, on their face, represent almost the diametric opposite of "an effort to cooperate."

But we must carry on the normalization of this monster because...ummmm...the good of the nation?

[LiberalLovinLug]

20. "good of the nation".

Translated...We don't want to make Tucker's brows furrow any deeper. Make more MAGATs mad. That would be "divisive".

[lunatica]

24. Wouldn't want Tucker to clinch his lips much more is better

Or maybe his arse would be better, though I think his ass clinches automatically when he pinches his mouth.

[Mr.Bill]

6. If I'm reading this correctly,

the judge didn't lift the fine, just moved the deadline to May 20th. If he doesn't comply, the fine will be enforced retroactively. He also must pay the fines already accrued.

[summer_in_TX]

32. Exactly.

That's a way to incentivize Trump to improve his cooperation.

He MUST pay what he owes so far AND provide documents by May 20 or Contempt of Court finding is reinstated and the $10K a day is too, backdated to today.

Sounds like this judge doesn't believe Trump and the outside firm in their claim that "That's all there is."

[mcar]

8. Headline seems misleading

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=7CS1G2cVLSJJmzNZfxgLow

Numerous misleading headlines are now claiming the judge has let Trump off the contempt hook. This is false. The judge has simply given Trump a May 20th deadline to fully comply with the New York AG's subpoena, or else the fines kick in retroactively.
2:11 PM · May 11, 2022

[FBaggins]

10. Palmer isn't a good source for headline "misleading" analysis unless you like irony

But he does appear to have this one correct.

Blind squirrel and all that

[mcar]

11. At this point, I'd take him over NYT

Did you see their headline today about how inflation is easing?

"Inflation Pressures Remain Strong"

[FBaggins]

13. The NYT headline you quote is entirely accurate

Sounds like you'll "take" what you want to hear.

[mcar]

15. Funny, so many other news sources are

saying that inflation eased some in April.

I'll take reality and not RW spin.

[FBaggins]

16. Inflation eased slightly by one measure...

... it increased substantially by a more-important measure...

... by either measure, it is still accurate to say that "inflation pressures remain strong". It would also be accurate to say that both were worse than anticipated.

[gab13by13]

9. This is another argument against the wait and see crowd,

Give the fucker time to juggle his books is what I see.

[Lasher]

12. Consider this version:

Trump must pay $110,000 fine to purge contempt, judge says

Judge says $10,000-a-day fine stopped accruing Friday when ex-president and his lawyers filed new affidavits

Donald Trump must pay a $110,000 fine to the New York state attorney and meet other conditions to purge a contempt of court order for his failure to comply with a subpoena in a civil investigation into his business practices, a judge said on Wednesday.

The judge, Arthur Engoron, told a virtual hearing a $10,000-a-day fine imposed on the former president in late April stopped accruing on Friday, when Trump and his lawyers filed new affidavits detailing steps they said they took to find documents relevant to the investigation by Letitia James, the New York attorney general.

Trump has said he does not have any relevant files, a claim Engoron said last month he found surprising.

The judge gave Trump until 20 May to comply with additional conditions, which include submitting affidavits from his personal assistant and others familiar with his record-keeping practices, and the completion of a report by a third-party firm hired to search Trump Organization records.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/11/trump-fine-contempt-new-york-letitia-james

Trump's lawyers filed new affidavits on Friday, which stopped the contempt clock according to this ruling. But TFG has to come up with $110K now. TFG is saying he doesn't have any relevant files, which is of course a blatant lie. Hope this helps.

[NewJeffCT]

21. I doubt Donny Dollhands

has $110,000 to pay.

[hamsterjill]

28. His supporters will bail him out.

Doesn’t he always ask them? And don’t they always do it?

[AllaN01Bear]

17. !@#$%&*(). why is every one so hands off this guy.?

[louis-t]

18. Playing hardball. Give him enough rope to hang himself.

He's not getting off easy. Judge treating him like the child he is. He will do anything possible to get out of paying. Odds are he won't pay and judge will reinstate (there's a new word for you) the fine. He won't be 'reinstated' but the fine will.

[Evolve Dammit]

19. "...they got the judges in their back pocket." G. Carlin American Dream. Pretty easy to see why

Mitch & Co. jammed through as many as fast as possible. The judicial system is divided ideologically and politically as much as we are at this point. Disturbing. Look at SCOTUS.

[NewJeffCT]

22. He needs to pay $110,000 within 9 days

to get rid of the contempt. With Russian being under sanctions, it will be a lot harder for Putin to wire him the money to pay the fine.

[dchill]

25. Why?

I guess that's not a legitimate question anymore.

[Linda Ed]

27. Numerous misleading headlines

are now claiming the judge has let Trump off the contempt hook. This is false. The judge has simply given Trump a May 20th deadline to fully comply with the New York AG’s subpoena, or else the fines kick in retroactively.

News outlets are running headlines that falsely imply the judge has simply let Trump off the contempt hook
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/no-a-judge-did-not-let-donald-trump-off-the-contempt-hook-today/45218/

[gldstwmn]

29. He's going to skate. TFG is either a confidential informant or a double agent.

I can think of no other person in the history of this country who has gotten away with what he has.

[hamsterjill]

31. Why did the Judge give him until May 20th?

Throw his ass in jail today for failure to comply.