Trump to pay $110,000 fine for breaching subpoena

Former US President Donald Trump will have to pay a fine of US$ 110,000 (the equivalent of just over R$ 565,000 at the current exchange rate), in addition to complying with other determinations to eliminate a judicial conviction for failure to comply with a civil investigation subpoena into its business practices by the New York State Attorney General’s Office. The court’s decision was announced on Wednesday (11).

Judge Arthur Engoron also accused Trump, during a virtual hearing, of making a false allegation in an affidavit related to requesting documents relating to his family’s real estate business, the Trump Organization.

Engoron said a $10,000-a-day fine he imposed on Trump in April for failing to comply with the subpoena stopped accruing on Friday, when the former president and his lawyers filed new affidavits detailing the steps they took to find documents relevant to Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation.

Trump said in the May 6 affidavit that he does not have any relevant documents.

Engoron took issue with Trump’s claim that he hasn’t communicated digitally since 2010, pointing to his Twitter posts and current posts on Truth Social, a social network he founded.

“We all know he uses electronic communication – 80 million people were on his Twitter account,” Engoron said. “A sentence has to be true. That sentence is simply not true.”

Michael Madaio, Trump’s attorney, said the statement was not intended to imply that Trump did not post on social media. Alina Habba, another attorney for the Republican, said Trump did not use direct messages on Twitter and that his tweets were not relevant to the investigation.

The judge gave Trump until May 20 to meet the additional conditions, or else the contempt order could be reinstated and the fine reinstated retroactively.