New York Attorney General Letitia James asked the state’s highest court Thursday to reinstate President Trump’s half-billion-dollar civil fraud penalty, appealing a bombshell ruling that cut the whopping fine to $0.
James’ office wants the New York State Court of Appeals to reverse the mid-level Appellate Division’s decision last month that the $464 million judgment — which grew to more than $500 million with interest — was an “excessive” fine barred by the US Constitution.
The notice of appeal comes a week after Trump filed his own challenge of the mid-level court’s ruling, which upheld a finding that the 79-year-old real estate tycoon-turned president committed fraud by exaggerating his net worth in financial records sent to banks and insurers.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference on Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. AP
Despite wiping out the staggering fine, the appeals panel also kept in place other restrictions on Trump’s business, including a ban on Trump and his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from running a company in New York for several years.
It was unclear Thursday when the Empire State’s highest court, which is housed in Albany, would hear arguments in the closely watched case.
The appeal is the latest salvo in a long-running case in which James, a Democrat, accused Trump and others of carrying out a “staggering fraud” by inflating the value of his assets — including his golf courses, Manhattan penthouse and Mar-A-Lago estate — by billions of dollars over a decade to get better loan and insurance terms.
The Republican commander in chief has maintained his innocence and claimed that the case was politically motivated, pointing out that James promised to investigate Trump while campaigning for office.
President Donald Trump makes an announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 2, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is seen on July 28, 2023, in Palm Beach, Florida. Getty Images
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Evidence from the 11-week trial revealed that Trump’s business falsely claimed on financial files that his Trump Tower triplex was 30,000 square feet — rather than its true size of 11,000 square feet.
Trump also valued Mar-a-Lago at $517 million, despite his own tax broker admitting that the palatial estate had a true “market value” of far less because it was considered a “private club” and not a residence, a witness revealed.
Trump’s lawyers shot back that the case had no “victims” and that “sophisticated” companies like Deutsche Bank did their own research before entering into the deals and were all paid back in full.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sided with James’ office at the end of the non-jury trial, but the appeals court said Engoron had gone too far by ordering Trump to pay the massive penalty.
“While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award,” two judges on the panel wrote.