Appeals court throws out massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK AP An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump ruling Thursday in New York state s lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House A panel of five judges in New York s mid-level Appellate Division mentioned the verdict which stood to cost Trump more than million and rock his real estate empire was excessive Related Articles At least CDC employees are getting final termination notices union says New work rules could deny food stamps to thousands of veterans Immigrants seeking lawful work and citizenship are now subject to anti-Americanism screening Trump administration revokes guard clearances of current and former governing body bureaucrats Trump s Justice Department is inspecting whether DC police representatives falsified crime content After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay million in penalties With interest the sum has topped million The total combined with penalties levied on specific other Trump Organization executives including Trump s sons Eric and Donald Jr now exceeds million with interest While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants business practices 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 Judges Dianne T Renwick and Peter H Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals court s ruling Engoron also imposed other punishments such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a scant years Those provisions have been on pause during Trump s appeal and he was able to hold off collection of the money by posting a million bond The court which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower court s fraud finding dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the state s highest court the Court of Appeals The appeals court the Appellate Division of the state s trial court took an unusually long time to rule weighing Trump s appeal for nearly months after oral arguments last fall Normally appeals are decided in a matter of weeks or a limited months New York Attorney General Letitia James who brought the suit on the state s behalf has explained the businessman-turned-politician engaged in lying cheating and staggering fraud FILE New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference outside Manhattan federal court in New York Feb AP Photo Yuki Iwamura File Trump and his co-defendants denied wrongdoing In a six-minute summation of sorts after a monthslong trial Trump proclaimed in January that he was an innocent man and the event was a fraud on me He has repeatedly maintained that the situation and verdict were political moves by James and Engoron who are both Democrats Trump s Justice Department has subpoenaed James for records related to the lawsuit among other documents as part of an probe into whether she violated the president s civil rights James personal attorney Abbe D Lowell has mentioned that exploring the fraud affair is the the greater part blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president s political retribution campaign Trump and his lawyers announced his financial statements weren t deceptive since they came with disclaimers noting they weren t audited The defense also noted that bankers and insurers independently evaluated the numbers and the loans were repaid Despite such discrepancies as tripling the size of his Trump Tower penthouse he explained the financial statements were if anything lowball estimates of his fortune During an appellate court hearing in September Trump s lawyers argued that plenty of of the incident s accusations were too old an assertion they made unsuccessfully before trial The defense also contends that James misused a consumer-protection law to sue Trump and improperly policed private business transactions that were satisfactory to those involved State attorneys explained the law in question applies to fraudulent or illegal business conduct whether it targets everyday consumers or big corporations Though Trump insists no one was harmed by the financial statements the state contends that the numbers led lenders to make riskier loans than they knew and that honest borrowers lose out when others encounter their net-worth numbers The state has argued that the verdict rests on ample evidence and that the scale of the penalty comports with Trump s gains including his profits on properties financed with the loans and the interest he saved by getting favorable terms offered to wealthy borrowers The civil fraud episode was just one of several legal obstacles for Trump as he campaigned won and segued to a second term as president On Jan he was sentenced in his criminal hush money incident to what s known as an unconditional discharge leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail probation a fine or other punishment He is appealing the conviction And in December a federal appeals court upheld a jury s finding that Trump sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll in the mid- s and later defamed her affirming a million judgment against him The appeals court declined in June to reconsider he still can try to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal He s also appealing a subsequent verdict that requires him to pay Carroll million for additional defamation suggests