Trump lawyers to ask appeals court to toss $489 million civil fraud ruling

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and his company will argue to an appeals panel Thursday that it should throw out a judge’s February ruling that Trump must fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in profit obtained through fraud, plus millions more in interest.

In his appeal in July, Trump’s lawyers called the judgment “draconian” and said the case violated “the Constitution and the sanctity of the complex commercial marketplace.” The judge in the case ordered Trump and his co-defendants to pay the state nearly $364 million in “ill-gotten gains” and interest — from before and after the ruling — that has accrued to more than $120 million.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which brought the case after a yearslong investigation, said in reply that Trump’s team rehashed arguments that were previously rejected. They argued that not only did the judge conclude Trump violated civil statutes, but also “that defendants had engaged in criminal, illegal conduct.”

Since the case is a civil matter, Trump does not face the prospect of prison time. The appeal is being heard by the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Arguments begin at noon and will be live streamed on the court’s YouTube page.

New York Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives — including sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. — deceived banking partners by falsely inflating Trump’s wealth on financial statements. That deception allowed Trump and his company to receive deal terms that he wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, leading to massive windfalls, Engoron concluded.

Engoron wrote in the scathing ruling that Trump and his co-defendants’ “complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.” 

He wrote that documents in evidence prove “over and over again” that they falsely inflated Trump’s wealth and reported those fraudulent numbers to business partners.

Engoron concluded Trump and his company gave the accountants “blatantly false financial data.”

The judge lambasted Trump for blaming his employees and others during several hours of testimony in the November 2023 bench trial. While James’ office and Engoron concluded Trump’s wealth was overvalued, Trump said on the stand that the opposite was true, and that his company “underestimated” the value of his properties. He further claimed that the value of his brand was not being factored into the estimates.

“The numbers you are talking about here is, you know, they are very big numbers, very, very big. Far bigger — the values are far bigger than what is on the financial statement,” Trump said, later adding, “billions of dollars more.”

Trump has called this and several other civil and criminal cases against him a coordinated effort to tarnish his reputation and harm his presidential campaign. The appellate court is not expected to rule on his appeal before the election.

The civil fraud judgment is one of a trifecta of rulings against Trump in New York in the past year that have hit Trump financially and personally. In January, Trump was ordered to pay over $83 million in damages to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation — on top of a previous $5 million judgment in her favor. In May, he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his criminal trial. Trump is appealing both of those rulings and has denied all allegations.