New York attorney general subpoenas Trump’s longtime assistant for testimony

The New York attorney general’s office said Monday that it subpoenaed former President Donald Trump’s longtime executive assistant and plans to question her under oath next week as part of its civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances.

The subpoena for Rhona Graff was disclosed by a lawyer for Attorney General Letitia James’ office in court papers opposing Trump’s latest bid to rid himself of a contempt of court order for being slow to respond to a subpoena for documents.

Graff’s deposition is scheduled for May 31, special litigation counsel Andrew Amer said in the court filing. Amer said James’ office plans to ask Graff about a variety of issues, including Trump’s involvement in the preparation of annual financial statements.

Graff started working for Trump in 1987 and has been described as his gatekeeper and right hand.

The lawyers said they want to question her about, among other things, the Trump Organization’s document retention and destruction policy as well as Trump’s involvement in the preparation of the Trump Organization’s financial statements.

“Did he ever review the statement in draft form before he signed the final version each year? Did he annotate any drafts with comments and/or questions? If so, what happened to those drafts? In what form was the final version of the statement presented for Mr. Trump’s approval in each year? How did he make his approval clear?” posed the state attorneys.

James, a Democrat, has said her three-year probe uncovered evidence the Trump Organization misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses on financial statements for more than a decade.

Trump, a Republican, denies the allegations. His lawyers contend James is using her civil investigation to gain access to information that could then be used against the former president in a criminal inquiry. Trump is also suing James in federal court, seeking to shut down her investigation.

Earlier this month, a New York judge held Trump in civil contempt, fining him $110,000 for failing to produce records or demonstrate he and his legal team undertook efforts to root out any documents.

Last week, Trump wired the money to an escrow account and produced 11 affidavits from lawyers and others at the Trump Organization to try to support their position that they scoured file cabinets and electronic files to comply with the subpoena. One of those affidavits was filed by Graff, but the state attorneys say it “raises a series of obvious questions.”

“Ms. Graff’s affidavit does not include the retention and preservation practice relating to the Statements of Financial Condition that Mr. Trump signed and are the key focus of OAG’s investigation.” They write she is also silent as to what she did with any records she received from Trump, as opposed to records Trump wrote himself.

“What happened to the correspondence that he received, both from Trump Organization staff and others outside the organization?” they asked.

The state lawyers also said it was “striking” that the Trump Organization couldn’t locate any other former executive assistants and said they wanted to know what efforts were made to track them down. In addition, the state attorneys said Trump failed to submit an affidavit from Trump’s executive assistant as of December 2021.

They asked the judge to extend Trump’s deadline to satisfy those requirements to purge his contempt until June 1 rather than move to reinstate the daily $10,000 fine.