President Donald Trump won’t have to pay the half-billion-dollar fine levied following his 2024 fraud case, after a New York appellate court found the fine to be “excessive.”
Though the fraud conviction was upheld by the court of five New York judges, the $527 million fine imposed on Trump by Judge Arthur Engoron was ruled to be out of proportion with the judgment. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the state’s highest court.
“While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state,” wrote Judge Peter Moulton, as part of the 323-page ruling on Thursday.
The president celebrated the ruling in a lengthy rant on Truth Social.
“TOTAL VICTORY in the FAKE New York State Attorney General Letitia James Case,” Trump wrote.
He praised the court for having “the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision,” calling the entire case a “Political Witch Hunt.”
“This was a Case of Election Interference by the City and State trying to show, illegally, that I did things that were wrong when, in fact, everything I did was absolutely CORRECT and, even, PERFECT,” he said.
United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey and former Trump attorney Alina Habba called the ruling “a resounding victory.”
“The court struck down the outrageous and unlawful… penalty confirming what we have said from the beginning: the Attorney General’s case was politically motivated, legally baseless, and grossly excessive,” Habba said in a post on X.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the charges against Trump in 2022, pointed out that the ruling backed up the previous verdict.
“Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud,” she shared in a statement. “The court upheld the injunctive relief we won, limiting Donald Trump and the Trump Organization officers’ ability to do business in New York. It should not be lost to history: yet another court has ruled that the president violated the law, and that our case has merit.”
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