Trump’s lawyer says they left voicemails for former executive assistants in attempt to satisfy civil contempt issue
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the American Freedom Tour at the Austin Convention Center on May 14 in Austin
By Kara Scannell
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump said they made one phone call to most of his former executive assistants in their effort to try to contact them as part of the New York attorney general’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances.
To keep Trump out of civil contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena, his attorneys were ordered by Friday to satisfy the remaining conditions or the $10,000 per day fine could be reinstated. The remaining items include a description of their effort to track down Trump’s former executive assistants to explain what the former President’s document retention and destruction policy was while he ran the Trump Organization and an affidavit from Trump’s current assistant.
In a new court filing Friday, Trump attorney Michael Madaio said they obtained contact information for 10 of Trump’s 13 former assistants from the Trump Organization and left one voicemail message each for six of them on May 18. The calls were never returned. He said they also spoke with two former assistants who said they would call back, but never did.
One former assistant’s phone was out of service, according to the filing. The numbers for three others, he said, were not available.
Trump’s current assistant, Molly Michael, wrote in an affidavit that she is involved with the pro-Trump Save America PAC and has never worked for the Trump Organization. Michael said that she doesn’t have a formal document policy and any hard copies of documents would be located at an office at Mar-a-Lago. Michael said she turned over “copies of certain documents” to a Trump attorney last December.
The New York attorney general’s office has one business day to respond to Trump’s filing and make any objections as to whether Trump has met his obligations to satisfy the lifting of the civil contempt order.
In April, New York state Judge Arthur Engoron held Trump in civil contempt for failing to comply with a December subpoena for documents.
Attorneys for Trump and the attorney general have been engaged in a back and forth over whether Trump has scoured file cabinets, storage rooms and electronic filings to produce records called for by the subpoena. Engoron lifted the contempt order last month if Trump met certain conditions, including wiring $110,000 to an escrow account.
The-CNN-Wire
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