Former President Donald Trump Held in Contempt by New York Appeals Court for Failing to Turn Over Documents Demanded in Subpoena

A New York appeals court ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was “correctly” held in contempt last year for failing to turn over documents demanded in a subpoena by the state’s attorney general. The April 25, 2022, contempt finding came after he contested a subpoena seeking records related to his personal finances and the financing of several properties.

Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, appeared last month before a federal grand jury investigating the mishandling of classified documents from his time in the White House, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. Habba also has been a lead attorney for Trump in the New York case and a video of Trump’s deposition shows him pleading the Fifth.

Habba has not played the prominent role that other Trump attorneys have played in responding to the documents probe, which spilled out in public view with an August FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. However, she has made notable TV appearances defending Trump and criticizing the federal documents probe.

Trump claimed he had no material that was responsive to the subpoena, leading to demands by the judge and the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James that his attorneys provide detailed explanations of how they searched for the documents. The appeals court ruling upheld the lower court’s contempt finding, but the court did not impose any sanctions against Trump.