In September, a judge gave the Trump Organization an ultimatum: Comply with the New York Attorney General’s two-year-old subpoenas, or hire an outside digital forensics company to gather the evidence.
The Trump Organization chose the second option. But with a deadline for the information fast approaching, it’s becoming clear that the Trump family only hired the company to do some of the job—and what is coming will still take plenty more time.
It turns out, the digital forensics company that the Trump Organization chose, HaystackID, wasn’t hired to actually get everything investigators wanted.
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“Haystack has not been engaged to perform item five of the stipulated order (which would be a significant undertaking, requiring detailed instructions, and a modified project agreement) nor to issue more detailed monthly reports,” the company’s chief information security officer, John W. Wilson, emailed prosecutors and Trump Organization lawyers last week.
Now, state prosecutors are asking a judge to step in and speed up the evidence collection before it’s potentially too late for the state to sue or file criminal charges against the the Trump Organization.
On Friday, prosecutor Austin Thompson wrote to Judge Arthur F. Engoron, asking him to hold a special conference this week and intervene, warning that the Trump Organization could very well miss its April 30 deadline to turn over information.
“There is no reason this entire process should not be completed by mid-April,” Thompson said in his letter to the judge on Friday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating former President Donald Trump and his family's company over its alleged practice of using wildly varying real estate valuations to secure bank loans and reduce tax bills. The office is suing Trump, son Donald Jr., and daughter Ivanka to force them to testify as the office contemplates a civil lawsuit over bank fraud and tax dodging. Her office is simultaneously also pursuing a criminal investigation alongside the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
When the judge overseeing the civil court fight told the company to either comply with the AG’s subpoenas or hire a third party firm, the Trump Organization was supposed to hire someone to track down devices used by certain witnesses, gather evidence, conduct targeted searches of key terms, and submit monthly reports of its progress.
But, prosecutors complained, the monthly progress reports from HaystackID are too vague and targeted searches aren’t being done—and they’re worried the Trump Organization is being sly and just trying to run the clock.
The AG’s office and the company have signed a “tolling agreement” that essentially freezes time on the state’s statute of limitations and lets law enforcement investigate without having to rush and either sue or file criminal charges. But that agreement expires at the end of April, giving prosecutors little time to review the evidence and decide what action to take, if any.
“Unfortunately, Haystack’s progress is opaque to [Office of the Attorney General] because the Trump Organization has restricted Haystack’s ability to report any substantive information,” prosecutors wrote to Trump lawyers earlier this month. “And… that progress which we can discern has been too slow.”
By last count, HaystackID had only communicated with half of the 81 people with access to devices that need to be searched. Among the listed “records custodians” are the former president himself, his three adult business executive children, his longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff, indicted former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, company chief operating officer Matthew Calamari, company lawyer Alan Garten, and many more.
And there’s no telling when the actual devices will be scanned and sorted through.
The Trump Organization and its outside lawyer at the New York firm LaRocca Hornik Rosen & Greenberg did not respond to questions on Monday. HaystackID said it would review our questions but did not immediately answer questions.
However, in a letter to prosecutors, attorney Lawrence Rosen, who represents the Trump Organization, cast the AG’s complaints as an attempt to “micromanage” the situation in a way that “compromises Haystack’s independence.” He also pinned the whole ordeal on the AG’s office, saying prosecutors didn’t reiterate the judge’s entire order when it demanded an outside firm get involved back in November.
The Trump Organization ”has been working tirelessly and at great expense to address the ever widening and never ending demands made by the OAG and its ‘scorched earth’ policy for the collection of that information,” Rosen wrote to prosecutors last week.
According to Federal Election Commission records, HaystackID has only been paid to work with conservative political groups. The company received $63,948 from the National Republican Congressional Committee for work described as recount legal consulting in 2019. It earned another $77,205 for providing software-related services to the political action committee backing Rep. David S. Schweikert (R-AZ), who represents Phoenix suburbs.
It will now be up to New York State Judge Engoron to step in, but he’s shown little patience with the Trump Organization so far. He sided with the attorney general when she sought to depose Trump’s son, Eric, who ultimately refused to answer questions by pleading his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination some 500 times.
The judge also recently ruled that Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka must also sit down for questioning, a matter that is heading to the state’s appellate court.
Roger Sollenberger contributed to this story.
