The Trump Organization was held in contempt of court last year at a secret trial, according to a report.
The New York Times reported that a newly unsealed court document released on Tuesday revealed information about the one-day contempt trial.
The trial was held after prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office requested that the company be punished for “willfully disobeying” four grand jury subpoenas and three court orders.
The report added that the judicial order dated 8 December 2021, was unsealed by the judge who presided over the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization, which ended last week with the conviction of the company.
While the order redacted the name of the entities on trial in October, people familiar with the matter confirmed to the outlet that those entities were the Trump Organization corporations that later went on trial for tax fraud.
“The record is clear that the company failed to produce responsive documents without explanation,” judge Juan Merchan was quoted as writing in the order.
The judge convicted the two corporations of criminal contempt of court and fined them $4,000, the maximum under the law.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office brought criminal fraud charges against the company in July last year.
It was found guilty at trial, also overseen by Judge Merchan, earlier this month.
The details in the judicial order released on Tuesday align with parallel litigation brought by the New York Attorney General’s office, which also led to contempt orders after the company fought subpoenas.
“In this Court’s view, it is unacceptable that the [redacted] documents, which were purportedly identified and set aside by the Corporation’s IT department, were not forwarded to the eDiscovery vendor and simply sat idle for as much as four months,” Merchan wrote in the order, reported the Insider.
“There is no question that many documents were in existence and within Respondent’s control and yet not produced,” the order added.
“Not only does the record demonstrate this, but [redacted] has conceded this point on several occasions.”
Federal prosecutors are also investigating the former president for removal of sensitive documents from the White House and probing whether he obstructed efforts to retrieve them.
