NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James moved Thursday to have the state's highest court reinstate President Donald Trump's staggering civil fraud penalty, appealing a lower-court decision that slashed the potential $500 million fine to $0.
James' office filed a notice of appeal with the state Court of Appeals, seeking to reverse the midlevel Appellate Division's ruling last month that the penalty violated the Constitution's ban on excessive fines.
James, a Democrat, had previously said she would appeal.
Trump declared "TOTAL VICTORY" after the Appellate Division wiped away his fine, but the five-judge panel left other punishments in place and narrowly endorsed a trial court's finding that he committed fraud by padding his wealth on financial paperwork given to banks and insurers.
Trump, a Republican, filed his own appeal last week, asking the Court of Appeals to throw out those other punishments, which include a multiyear ban on him and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from holding corporate leadership positions in New York.
Those measures have been on hold during the appellate process, and the Appellate Division judges said Trump can seek a court order to extend the pause pending further appeals.
James' appeal is the latest twist in a lawsuit she filed against Trump in 2022, which alleged that he inflated his net worth by billions of dollars on his financial statements and habitually misled banks and others about the value of prized assets, including golf courses, hotels, Trump Tower, and his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After a trial that saw a sometimes testy Trump take the witness stand, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last year that James had proved he engaged in a yearslong conspiracy with executives at his company to deceive banks and insurers about his wealth and assets.
Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million — repayment of what the judge deemed "ill-gotten gains" from his financial statements. That amount soared to more than $515 million, including interest, by the time the Appellate Division ruled.
The five-judge Appellate Division panel was sharply divided on many issues in Trump's appeal, but a majority said the monetary penalty was "excessive."
"While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award," two of the judges wrote.
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