Trump claims he can't produce former secretaries New York AG wants to interview — because they won't return his calls: report

On Friday, Business Insider revealed that former President Donald Trump is claiming in court that he is unable to produce 12 former executive assistants who worked for the Trump Organization whose testimony is being requested by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The reason, Trump's legal team claims, is that these people will not return the former president's calls.

"A defense lawyer has explained why so many of Donald Trump's former executive assistants can't be located: they won't return his phone calls," reported Laura Italiano. "New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded that Trump make his former secretaries available as she winds up her 3-year investigation of the former president's real estate and golf resort empire."

"She wants them to swear out affidavits explaining the process they used to organize and preserve Trump's personal business records, scant few of which have been produced for the AG's probe," the report continued. "'It is striking that counsel could not locate any of Mr. Trump's 12 former executive assistants,' AG Special Counsel Andrew Amer had said in court papers on May 23. But most of the 12 missing former executive assistants had not responded to voicemails or failed to call back as promised, explained the latest filing in Trump's battle against James' document subpoena."

James is mounting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization kept two sets of books, valuing the company's assets higher when pursuing bank loans and lower when filing taxes with federal and state agencies.

A similar, criminal probe by the Manhattan district attorney just concluded its grand jury with no charges for the former president himself, although DA Alvin Bragg says that probe is still ongoing.