Donald Trump and Letitia James Are Fighting Subpoenas — Again.

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A new round of subpoenas has been filed by both sides in New York’s massive Trump fraud case. Attorney General Letitia James said in court papers that she may try to impeach Donald and Eric Trump. Trump hopes to depose his former banker and accountant, including Michael Cohen, who will fight his subpoena. Loading Something is loading.

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Spring is upon us, and like swallows returning to Capistrano, Letitia James and Donald Trump are once again fighting over deposits.

With the upcoming October trial in the New York attorney general’s massive, $250 million fraud case against the former president and his business empire, Trump’s side has sent out several last-minute deposition subpoenas.

The subpoenas were served on up to 10 people Trump and his co-defendants may want to call in the trial, including Donald Bender, the top Mazars USA accountant who prepared Trump’s personal and corporate taxes for years. Rosemary Vrablic, Trump’s longtime banker at Deutsche Bank, also got one, according to court papers.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer-turned-very-vocal nemesis, also got one of these deposition subpoenas from Trump.

It was dropped off last week at his front desk, he told Insider.

“After counsel, I have decided to challenge the subpoena and intend to make a motion to quash,” he said.

“The subpoena was improperly served, I am not a party to this action and the subpoena does not contain any specifics as to why I was called as a non-party witness,” he added.

“This is bad lawyering by team Trump.”

Trump’s subpoenas have gone out over the past two weeks, and at the last minute — against the so-called “timely notice” deadline. It’s over and another deadline is approaching that the two sides are now fighting in James’ lawsuit.

Deadlines are nothing new. Both sides reached an agreement in November. Attorneys for Trump and for James have until Tuesday to give each other “timely notice” of who they will fire and when. And they all have until March 20 to make the deposits.

Trump’s side — or more precisely, the legal teams for Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and a dozen Trump Organization executives and corporate entities, all named as defendants in James’ lawsuit — is now asking for more time to meet the March 20 deadline.

“The current schedule imposes great hardship,” according to a recent letter filed by attorney Clifford S. Robert on behalf of the 16 Trump defendants in the case.

And, in a flash-back to last spring’s deposition battle, James again accuses Trump of calculated foot-drag.

“The Defendants’ claimed hardship is self-inflicted,” James counters, in papers filed by Colleen K. Faherty, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office.

James’ lawyers accused Trump’s side of “continued dilatory conduct” for waiting until they met the timely-notice deadline to serve any deposition subpoenas.

Excerpt from a court filing in the New York attorney’s case against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. New York State court system

James, New York’s attorney general, won the deposition battle last year, if you don’t count all the Fifth’s resulting pleadings.

It was in the spring of 2022 when a Manhattan judge and state appellate court ordered Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump to sit for sworn depositions in the Trump Organization’s AG fraud investigation.

The same Manhattan judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, has been refereeing these ongoing battles over depositions and other evidence for more than two years, first in James’ extensive investigation into Trump and the his real-estate and golf-resort company, and now in the upcoming case.

Engoron, for now, refused to grant Trump’s legal team’s request for a personal conference, in his lower Manhattan courtroom, where the two sides argued personally about moving or not moving the deadline.

The ball is in Trump’s court.

His lawyers can settle on any depositions they can take on March 20. Or they must file something with the court that better describes and supports their request for an “extension,” as their latest letter to Engoron is vaguely called here. Trump attorney Alina Habba did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Cohen’s subpoena from Trump defendants in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud case. Inside

Trump’s side argued that the attorney general sent them nearly 5.5 million pages of evidence from banks, accountants, insurers, and other outside entities involved in the case.

There was hardly a fair chance to give this “extraordinary amount of material” the meaningful analysis necessary to make informed decisions about depositions, they argued.

“Under the current schedule, it is not possible for the Defendants to complete the extensive fact discovery required in this case before the March 20 deadline.”

As of February 21, no deposition is scheduled, the letter also said.

In his response, James’ side — called the OAG, for the attorney general’s office — argued that there had been an avalanche of new material thrown, by them, at Trump.

“Approximately 85 percent of all documents held by the OAG in this action have been available to the Trump Organization since their creation,” the attorney general’s letter asserted.

Planning and conducting depositions is a large part of civil trial preparation. Both sides attend and ask questions in these videotaped, under-oath questioning sessions.

The point is to avoid last-minute surprises or “trial by ambush,” explains Jim Sullivan, a longtime civil attorney in New York City.

Leaving discovery until the last minute is so common a defense strategy, it’s almost a tradition, Sullivan said.

James’ side spent more than a year deposing witnesses in the lead-up to the case. About 50 depositions were taken, and those transcripts were all shared with Trump’s lawyers.

But in their own letter to the judge, James’ side suggested that the attorney general’s office is considering re-firing Donald Trump, Eric Trump, and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer who now serves to five months in prison for running a lengthy payroll-tax fraud scheme at the company.

Weisselberg’s deposition, if it happens, would have to be conducted via video from jail.

Trump’s desire to take depositions of many of the witnesses who have already been deposed by James is also a common defense strategy in the case, Sullivan said, because it can be very useful, especially if the witnesses disagree. according to each other or contradicting the previous testimony.

“Defendants don’t have to prove anything in most cases,” Sullivan said. “What the defendants have to do is create doubt.

“So if you have three or four people saying three or four different things, then how do we, as a plaintiff, with the burden of proof, prove our case?” he explained.

“What you’re trying to do is create confusion,” he added in defense of any charges. “Confusion is always your friend.”

James accused Trump in his lawsuit of routinely lying about the value of his properties to secure hundreds of millions in bank loans and tax breaks. He is seeking about $250 million in penalties and a ban on the Trump family from selling, buying, collecting rent, or borrowing money in New York.

Trump has denied any fraud, and is aggressively fighting the case.

A non-jury trial was set for October 2, “come hell or high water,” the delay-averse judge promised.

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