Weekly Briefs: Judge lifts Trump sanction, for now; $997M settlement offered in condo collapse

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Weekly Briefs: Judge lifts Trump sanction,…

News Roundup Weekly Briefs: Judge lifts Trump sanction, for now; $997M settlement offered in condo collapse

By Debra Cassens Weiss

May 13, 2022, 2:37 pm CDT

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Former President Donald Trump in August 2019. Photo from Shutterstock.

Judge willing to accept $110K, cooperation to end Trump sanction

A trial-level judge in New York lifted a $10,000 daily civil contempt sanction against former President Donald Trump on Wednesday. But Judge Arthur Engoron warned that the sanction could be reinstated if Trump doesn’t pay $110,000 in accumulated fines and continue to cooperate in the New York attorney general’s quest to review his personal files. Engoron suspended the daily fine after Trump’s lawyers filed documents attesting to a thorough search for the records. The state attorney general sought the documents in a civil probe of the Trump Organization’s valuation of assets. (The New York Times, CNN)

Victims of condo collapse offered $997M settlement

Victims of the condo tower collapse in Surfside, Florida, have reached a tentative $997 million settlement with a variety of defendants, including insurance companies and developers of an adjacent building. Judge Michael Hanzman of Miami Dade County, Florida, said the figure was “fantastic” and far higher than he had anticipated. He had earlier approved an $83 million settlement for condo owners’ economic losses. (The New York Times, the Associated Press)

Judge tosses Trump suit challenging Twitter ban

A federal judge in San Francisco has tossed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit contesting his ban from Twitter. U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California said in his May 6 ruling Twitter is a private company, and the First Amendment doesn’t restrict its decisions. (Reuters, Courthouse News Service, the New York Times, the judge’s decision)

Judge won’t sanction Google over lawyer-copied emails

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta of the District of Columbia won’t sanction Google for its alleged efforts to shield emails from lawsuit disclosure. Google had directed employees to copy lawyers and add a “privilege” label. Mehta said at a hearing Thursday he wouldn’t punish the company for the practice, but he wanted to make sure that the emails are reviewed to make sure that the company is complying with disclosure obligations in a government antitrust case. (Bloomberg News)

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