(AFP) – A US court threw out Thursday a $464 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump imposed by a judge who found he fraudulently inflated his personal worth, calling the sum “excessive” but upholding the judgment against him.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump in February 2024 at the height of his campaign to retake the White House, which coincided with several active criminal prosecutions. Engoron went on to order the mogul-turned-politician to pay $464 million, including interest, while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were told to hand over more than $4 million each. The judge found that Trump and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.
Alongside the financial hit to Trump, the judge also banned him from running businesses for three years, which the president repeatedly referred to as a “corporate death penalty.” On Thursday, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the verdict, but ruled that the size of the fine was “excessive” and that it “violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
State Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the initial case, could now appeal to the state’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals. Following the initial verdict, Trump subsequently sought to challenge the civil ruling as well as the scale and terms of the penalty, which has continued to accrue interest while he appeals.
He repeatedly condemned the case and the penalty as politically motivated. His son Don Jr. termed the appellate court ruling a “massive win!!!” “New York Appeals Court has just THROWN OUT President Trump’s $500+ Million civil fraud penalty! It was always a witch hunt, election interference, and a total miscarriage of justice… and even a left-leaning NY appeals court agrees! NO MORE LAWFARE!” he wrote on X.
During hearings conducted without a jury under state law, Trump accused then-president Joe Biden of driving the case, calling it “weaponization against a political opponent who’s up a lot in the polls.” As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment.
– Gregory WALTON
© 2024 AFP
