A divided appeals court tossed the nearly $500 million judgment that President Donald Trump owed to New York for a fraud ruling. Other penalties will stay.
Aug. 21 A divided appeals court threw on Thursday out the nearly $500 million judgment that President Donald Trump owed to the state of New York for a fraud ruling.
« While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state », wrote Peter Moulton, one of the five appeals judges to rule on Trump’s appeal.
The First Judicial Department of the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court upheld the fraud ruling, but eliminating the penalty means Trump can move the case to the highest state court, giving him another chance to fight the guilty verdict.
The appeals court said the penalty, « which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the state of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. »
But in the same ruling, the court said that other non-monetary sanctions imposed on Trump, the Trump Organization and others were « well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture.
