Appelate court reverse Trump fine
Fresh from a major legal victory, President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering attack on New York Judge Arthur Engoron on Sunday, branding him “incompetent,” “crooked,” and almost as “corrupt” as Attorney General Letitia James. The sharp words followed a landmark appellate ruling that slashed a $500 million penalty in James’ civil fraud case against Trump.
The New York Appellate Division’s decision overturned the massive fine, which stemmed from allegations that Trump inflated his real estate assets’ value to secure favorable lender terms. The five-judge panel ruled the penalty—$364 million plus interest—violated the Eighth Amendment, wiping it out entirely.
Trump took to Truth Social to slam Engoron, who oversaw the non-jury trial. “The Appellate Court removed incompetent Judge Engoron, but he refused to go, or even to acknowledge them,” Trump posted.
“He’s a highly overturned, CROOKED Judge, who is retiring into a life of lawsuits, along with his Chief Clerk, soon! He is almost as Corrupt as Leticia James, but not quite!”
Trump’s allies had accused Engoron of bias against the president-elect, his family, and his business. While the court upheld findings that Trump and his company were liable and affirmed James’ authority to impose injunctive relief on the Trump Organization, the elimination of the financial penalty was a major blow to her case.
Justice David Friedman, dissenting in part, argued James’ intent was political. He claimed her “ultimate goal was not market hygiene … but political hygiene, ending with the derailment of President Trump’s political career and the destruction of his real estate business.”
Friedman criticized James’ use of Section 63(12) of New York’s Executive Law, which grants sweeping civil fraud powers, calling it an unprecedented weaponization that gave her “essentially limitless power to prosecute her political enemies.”
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The penalties made no sense. There was no material evidence that the Trump companies cost the claimants that kind of money. As a lawyer, I worked on financial matters and previously did work on criminal cases, and saw nothing in the Trump business model indicating criminal conduct. Trump produced real estate projects that were successful in a competitive market in New York and elsewhere.
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