Back in February, Donald Trump seemingly got a reprieve from one of his many legal problems when the veteran prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into him and his company resigned, citing the new D.A.’s reticence to move forward with the case. While one of those attorneys insisted in his resignation letter that the team harbored “no doubt” about whether Trump “committed crimes—he did,” without the sign-off of Alvin Bragg, it appeared the case had increasingly little chance of resulting in an indictment against the former president. That undoubtedly came as happy news to Trump, who has spent his entire life escaping consequences for basically everything. But just as the gods of legal comeuppances give, they apparently take away!

On Monday, a New York judge held the ex-president in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena from New York attorney general Letitia James, whose office has also been investigating Trump and the Trump Organization for fraud in a civil case. That judge, Arthur Engoron, also hit Trump with a fine of $10,000 a day until he coughs up the documents James has requested. James said in January that she had uncovered “significant evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties to obtain economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions for years.” That same month, James’s office said in a filing that Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten had testified that the company kept filing cabinets of files and Post-it notes the famously email-averse Trump used to communicate with employees. “This file was never searched because the Trump Organization determined, improbably, that Mr. Trump was not involved in the preparation of his own financial statements,” James’s office wrote.

Last week, lawyers for Trump incredibly attempted to argue that he shouldn’t be held in contempt because, “After conducting a diligent search and review, Respondent’s counsel determined that Respondent was not in possession of any documents responsive to the Subpoena and that all potentially responsive documents were in the possession, custody or control of the Trump Organization.” Which is legalese for “Donald doesn’t have the documents (though the company he owns and controls might).”

Which is obviously absurd, and you can probably understand the frustration on the part of the attorney general’s office. “We are being hampered in our efforts to have a complete understanding because we don’t have evidence from the person who sits at the top of the organization,” Andrew Amer, with the A.G.’s office, said in court on Monday. Kevin Wallace, a prosecutor for the A.G., told the judge Monday it’s been “like pulling teeth” to obtain the necessary documents. Though Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, insisted Trump is not in possession of any of the written communications that were sought by the subpoena and therefore shouldn’t be punished, the judge pointed out on Monday that the ex-president hasn’t signed an affidavit swearing he complied with the subpoena. (Habba now says he would, and claimed, with a straight face: “My client is an honest person, much to the dismay of certain people in this room.”)

Trump, of course, has denied any and all wrongdoing, and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization told CNN the “allegations are baseless and will be vigorously defended.”

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