Donald Trump's lawyer on Wednesday filed a letter in New York City civil court claiming that the former president was "deprived" of the chance to speak out against the ruling in his civil fraud trial before it was filed, Newsweek reported.
The lawyer, Clifford Roberts, requested the opportunity to propose a "counterjudgment" to the ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron, insisting that it would be "contrary to fundamental fairness" if he was not permitted to do so.
Roberts wrote that he requests "that the court set a return date for the proposed judgment that affords defendants sufficient time to submit a proposed counter-judgment. To deprive defendants of the opportunity to submit a proposed counter-judgment would be contrary to fundamental fairness and due process."
Engoron fined Trump $355 million and banned him from doing business in the Big Apple for three years for committing fraud by inflating the value of his assets in order to secure more favorable bank loans and taxation deals.
Trump has stressed his innocence in the case and said it was politically motivated, Newsweek reported.
Some experts have also called the ruling unfair because there was no victim and no financial loss of any kind endured.
But others have disagreed. Bradley P. Moss, a partner at Mark S. Zaid, told Newsweek that "unless the state law itself is struck down, this argument will go nowhere. Many white-collar criminal cases do not have a traditional victim.
"Many criminal drug offenses do not have a traditional victim. Many licensing and registration offenses do not have a traditional victim. The victim is the public that was defrauded."
Carlton Fields attorney Gene Rossi emphasized that "the Trump family and organization received loans when they should not have. You cannot lie to get money.
"Moreover, if the banks had known of the real assets and liabilities, then they would have required more unfavorable terms for Trump World. That is a crime no matter how you look at it. Substantive due process violation because of no victims? I think not."
On Friday, Trump's lawyer Chris Kise said that the former president will appeal Engoron's ruling, telling Newsweek that the former president "remains confident the appellate division will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made by a trial court untethered to the law or to reality."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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