A US court overturned Thursday a 464 million-dollar civil fine against President Donald Trump imposed by a court that found he artificially ballooned his personal worth, but it kept the post-trial rarity of a judgment against a sitting president.
In February 2024, as he was in the middle of a reelection campaign to reclaim the White House, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump when he was the subject of multiple ongoing criminal investigations.
Engoron proceeded to sentence mogul-turned-politician to pay over $464 million including interests, his sons Eric and Don Jr. were ordered to give more than $4 million each.
The judge stated that Trump and his company had artificially increased his wealth and falsified values of properties to get good insurance rates or loans with financial institutions.
In addition to the financial punishment to Trump the judge also said he would not be allowed to operate businesses during the following three years which the president constantly talked about as a corporate death sentence.
On Thursday, New York Supreme Court Appellate Division upheld the judgment, but found that the amount of the fine was too high and that it does not comply with the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Massive Win
The New York Court of Appeals can be appealed by the current Attorney General Letitia James who made the inital filing.
After the trial verdict, Trump tried to appeal the civil judgment and the amount and nature of the punishment which continues to accrue interest since appeal.
He criticized the case and the punishment many times as politically motivated.
His son Don Jr called the appellate ruling a greatian win!!
New York Appeals Court has just threw out President Trump $500+ Million civil fraud penalty. His punishment was unlawful! It was an obvious witch hunt, election interference and a miscarriage of justice all the way and even a left leaning appeals court of NY agrees! NO MORE LAWFARE!” Ecque said, yet his smile showed that he was glad to hear them, at least. He wrote on the X.
In hearings that were without a jury, according to state law, Trump claimed that then-president Joe Biden was behind the charge calling it, weaponization against a political opponent who is up a lot in the polls.
There was no threat of imprisonment since the case was a civil case, and not a criminal case.
The First Department of the Appellate Division reversed the huge judgment against Donald Trump who was accused of has having inflated his wealth by billions during a 10-year period, as a way of obtaining favorable loan and insurance deals.
The 323-page ruling had three separate opinions all of which were that the fine against Trump which had now totalled 515 million dollars inclusive of interest was excessive.
Although the injunctive relief that the court ordered is well framed to correct the defendants business culture, the disgorgement order, which asks defendants to pay approximately 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 five-member panel nonetheless left intact a bar on Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from serving as officers in a New York based company, at least several years. The order maintained a requirement to have an external monitor supervise and report on the business activities of Trump OrganizationAFFIDAVIT
The suspension of parts of that ruling had been pending the appeal. Trump also posted a bond of 175 million instead of the full judgment as the appeal process goes up.
As there has been no majority obtained to the decision of Thursday, according to legal regulations, the case can automatically be considered to be heard by the highest court of the state of New York- the New York Court of Appeals.
Interest and penalties against all of the parties in the case including Don Jr and Eric and other executives of the Trump Org. have accumulated to over half a billion dollars since the February 2024 order by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
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