New York Attorney General Letitia James, after winning a $454 million judgment against Donald Trump for fraud, is now pursuing claims that Trump withheld evidence from her fraud probe. She is seeking additional fines under NY law if evidence subpoenaed was lost or destroyed. The focus is on three internal Trump Organization email chains from 2016 that were not turned over to her office, which were used as evidence in sending former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg to jail for perjury. The AG's office is pushing for a forensic review to determine if the emails were in the possession of the Trump Organization and why they were never turned over, potentially seeking sanctions for spoliation.
Fox News has been sanctioned by a judge overseeing the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems for withholding evidence until the eve of trial. The judge has given Dominion a fresh chance to gather evidence and is likely to appoint an outside investigator to probe Fox's late disclosure of evidence. The evidence at issue included recordings of Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, saying he did not have any evidence to back up false allegations of election rigging by Dominion. Fox has argued that its coverage of the vote-rigging claims was newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment.
The judge overseeing the $1.6 billion defamation case filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and its parent company admonished Fox's attorneys for potentially withholding evidence and is considering ordering an independent review by a special master that could lead to sanctions. The judge expressed anger and frustration during a pretrial hearing after learning that Fox only recently turned over recordings of Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo talking with two lawyers for then-President Donald Trump, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. The judge is also likely to ask a special master to investigate how Fox attorneys handled the issue of Rupert Murdoch's role at Fox News.
