Donald Trump got bad news in multiple legal cases on Wednesday — and two cases may now be focused on the same set of financial documents.
On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Trump and his three eldest children and later in the day the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump in a case of the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.
"It’s not that the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was critical to the New York Attorney General filing a $250 million lawsuit against the Trump Organization on Wednesday. But it may have helped," The Daily Beast reported. "That’s because, in a Trumpian twist of fate, the raid very well may bolster one part of New York AG Letitia James’ case against the former president: that he never fully turned over all the financial documents he was supposed to supply to her office."
James referred to Mar-a-Lago on page 198 of the filing.
"But even after almost two years of litigation it appears that it may still be the case that not all responsive documents were produced," the lawsuit said. "Among other things, in litigation over a search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida noted that 'the seized materials include . . . correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information.'"
The filing continues, "documents concerning taxes and accounting information would appear to be responsive to OAG’s subpoenas, but no such documents for Mr. Trump were produced by counsel for Mr. Trump despite a representation by that counsel that: I 'diligently searched each and every room of Respondent’s private residence located at Mar-a-Lago, including all desks, drawers, nightstands, dressers, closets, etc. I was unable to locate any documents responsive to the Subpoena that have not already been produced to the OAG by the Trump Organization.'"
It was Trump lawyer Alina Habba who reportedly swore she searched Mar-a-Lago.
The existence of additional documents at Mar-a-Lago that were not previously turned over could indicate obstruction of justice.
"Trump spent years stonewalling investigators over these financial records. A judge ultimately forced him to hire a third-party vendor to compile the documents," The Beast reported. "Ultimately, Trump’s lawyers had to swear they searched for all the records and that there weren’t more they were choosing to withhold. It’s a familiar refrain from Trump’s lawyers, who took a similar oath when handing over classified documents. They said they searched high and low for presidential records that should’ve gone to the National Archives—only for the FBI to find boxes of classified information at Mar-a-Lago months later."
Read the full report.
