Trump half-billion-dollar civil fraud penalty thrown out by appeals court

A New York state appeals court on Thursday threw out a more than $500 million civil business fraud penalty imposed on President Donald Trump and other defendants.

The appeals court said that while “injunctive relief” ordered by the trial judge in the case was “well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture” at the Trump Organization, the monetary 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 lawsuit against Trump and his company, along with other defendants, was filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump crowed about the decision in a post on Truth Social.

“”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,” Trump wrote.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron in February 2024 ordered Trump to pay around $454 million in total penalties after holding him liable for business fraud.

Engoron found that Trump’s statements of financial condition, signed between 2014 and 2021, overvalued his assets from between $812 million and $2.2 billion.

With interest, the penalty imposed on Trump and other defendants in the case has grown to more than $500 million.

CNBC has requested comment from James and the Trump Organization on the decision, which was issued by the First Judicial Department of the New York State Appellate Division.

Eric Trump, the president’s son, and one of the defendants in the lawsuit, reacted to the decision in a social media post.

“Total victory in the sham NY Attorney General case!!! After 5 years of hell, justice prevailed!” wrote Eric Trump, who, with his brother Donald Trump Jr., operates the Trump Organization.

In a concurring opinion with the decision, Appellate Division Judge Peter Moulton wrote that James “did not carry her initial burden” of establishing the rough total of the profits “causally connected” to the defendants’ violations.

“Indeed, the calculation of the disgorgement in this case was far from a reasonable approximation,” Moulton wrote.

James and the defendants can appeal Thursday’s decision, which kept in place non-monetary penalties imposed on President Trump and his company.