A US court dismissed a $464 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump on Thursday, a penalty imposed by a judge who determined that he had fraudulently inflated his personal wealth, describing the amount as “excessive” while still upholding the judgment against him.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump in February 2024, during the peak of his campaign to reclaim the White House, which coincided with multiple ongoing criminal prosecutions that the Republican labeled as “lawfare.”
“It was a Political Witch Hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before,” Trump stated on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, further asserting that “everything I did was absolutely CORRECT and, even, PERFECT.”
When Engoron initially ruled against Trump, he mandated that the businessman-turned-politician pay $464 million, inclusive of interest, while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were instructed to pay over $4 million each.
The judge determined that Trump and his company had unlawfully exaggerated his wealth and manipulated property values to secure favorable bank loans or insurance conditions.
In addition to the financial penalty imposed on Trump, the judge also prohibited him from operating businesses for three years, a measure the president frequently referred to as a “corporate death penalty.”
On Thursday, five judges from the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the verdict but deemed the amount of the fine as “excessive” and in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The Eighth Amendment forbids excessive or cruel punishments and penalties.
Massive win!
State Attorney General Letitia James, who initiated the case, pledged to appeal Thursday’s ruling to the state’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.
Thursday’s appellate court decision “affirmed the well-supported finding of the trial court: Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud,” James remarked.
Following the initial ruling, Trump sought to contest the civil judgment along with the magnitude and conditions of the penalty, which has been accumulating interest during his appeal.
He has consistently denounced the case and the penalty as being driven by political motives.
His son, Don Jr., described the appellate court’s decision as a “massive win!!!”
“New York Appeals Court has just DISMISSED President Trump’s $500+ Million civil fraud penalty! It was always a witch hunt, election interference, and a complete miscarriage of justice… and even a left-leaning NY appeals court concurs! NO MORE LAWFARE!” he posted on X.
During the hearings, which were held without a jury as per state law, Trump accused then-president Joe Biden of orchestrating the case, labeling it as “weaponization against a political opponent who’s leading significantly in the polls.”
Since the case was civil rather than criminal, there was no risk of imprisonment.
Trump’s economic advisor, Peter Navarro, stated at the White House on Thursday that “James is another one who should be in jail,” referring to the New York attorney general.
“The Democrats have really overstepped their bounds on this because they believed they could eliminate Donald Trump,” he remarked.
