A New York state judge has heard arguments on whether former United States President Donald Trump should be held in contempt of court for not producing documents subpoenaed in a state probe of his business practices.

Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from New York Attorney General Letitia James then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.

The attorney general’s office received “zero documents” from Trump by the end of March, Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel with James’s office, said on Monday in arguments before Justice Arthur Engoron in a New York state court in Manhattan.

“Donald Trump is not beyond the reach of this court’s authority,” Amer said in support of the contempt motion. “Mr. Trump had his day in court challenging the subpoena, and he lost.”

James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president’s family company based in New York City, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favourable loans and tax deductions.

James has said her probe had found “significant evidence” suggesting that for more than 10 years the company’s financial statements “relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits”.

Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr, have been subpoenaed and ordered to provide testimony to the attorney general. An appeal is pending for the testimony, but the former president agreed to comply with the subpoena’s document demands.

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