Donald Trump Scores Win Against Letitia James' New York Witch-Hunt

AP Photo/Chris Seward

Donald Trump scored a victory on Wednesday in New York against Letitia James’ witch-hunt “investigation” into the former president’s business dealings. Back in late April, Trump was held in contempt by a judge handling the case for supposedly not turning over requested documents.

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That ruling has now been lifted, according to CBS News.

A New York judge ruled Wednesday that Donald Trump is no longer in contempt for failing to turn over documents demanded in a subpoena by the state’s attorney general.

The former president’s April 25 contempt finding came after he contested a December subpoena seeking records related to his personal finances and the financing of several properties. 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 conducted their search.

“Although we are pleased that the court has lifted the contempt finding, we maintain that it was wholly unwarranted and improper in the first place,” Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said in a text message. “We will push ahead with our appeal to secure justice for our client.”

Apparently, the judge was satisfied with Trump’s assertion (and the assertions of his associates) that he simply doesn’t have the documents James wants. Multiple members of the president’s organization filed affidavits explaining a lack of centralized organization for records. Trump himself filed one that stated that he typically delegates such work to underlings, which makes perfect sense.

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That doesn’t mean Trump’s organization doesn’t keep any financial records, but it does mean they don’t have any specific policy to keep random documents related directly to Trump. James, being the leftwing hack she is, is obviously fishing for dirt on the former president, and according to the report, is none too happy with that development.

Trump’s lawyers seemed to troll James a bit in turning over some handwritten notes from Trump, though.

Trump attorney Alina Habba noted in a June 8 letter to the court that “a vast number” of documents showing Trump’s “handwritten notes” had been turned over by the Trump Organization. Habba’s letter was accompanied by eight exhibits that include several photos of the golf legend Gary Player, on which Trump had written “Great,” as well as several legal and design documents in which he wrote “OK.” There was also a note from his daughter on a planning document related to a Trump property in Doral, Florida.

I’m sure writing “great” on the picture of a golf player will serve as damning evidence for James’ pursuits. Conversely, there’s just nothing really here to find, and that’s the problem with witch-hunts. They begin with a conclusion and then bad-faith actors have to try to backfill the evidence to fit that conclusion. There was never any basis for James to investigate Trump’s business dealings. Rather, the entire thing was her simply continuing the partisan pursuit she started while she was campaigning to become attorney general. She promised to take down Trump, and this is her way of trying to deliver, facts need not apply.

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I won’t claim to know how exactly this is going to turn out, but I suspect it won’t amount to much. I guess we’ll find out, but it doesn’t seem as if Trump is too worried about it.

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