A New York appeals court threw out the $500M judgment against President Donald Trump stemming from NY Attorney General Letitia James’ business fraud case against Trump and his business. Trump, 78, was found to have fraudulently inflated his net worth by billions of dollars over a decade to obtain better loan and insurance terms. James said she would ask the state’s highest court to overturn the revocation of the fine.
The Appellate Division, First Department, overturned the $464 million judgment in a 323-page decision which included three separate opinions. All agreed the fine against Trump, which had grown to $515 million including interest, was “excessive.”
The First Judicial Department of the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court upheld the fraud ruling, but eliminating the penalty means Trump can move the case to the highest state court, giving him another chance to fight the guilty verdict. The appeals court said the penalty, “which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the state of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
The main opinion by Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton read: “While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Moulton added: “While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state.”
The five-judge panel kept in place a ban on Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from running a company in New York for several years; as well as an order for an outside monitor to oversee and file reports on the Trump Organization’s business dealings for three years.
Trump lauded the ruling on Truth Social, writing: “TOTAL VICTORY in the FAKE New York State Attorney General Letitia James Case! I greatly respect the fact that the court had the courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful decision that was hurting business all throughout New York State. Others were afraid to do business there. The amount, including interest and penalties, was over $550 million dollars. It was a political witch hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.”
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