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‘This is HUGE!’ Appeals court kills wild half-billion dollar penalty against President Trump

by | Aug 21, 2025 | Top Ten

Letitia James had orchestrated ‘fraud’ claims and partisan New York judge delivered draconian verdict

By Bob Unruh WND

A panel of appeals court judges, only a day after being accused publicly of “navel-gazing” for their lengthy delay in giving President Donald Trump relief from what has been confirmed as a politicized and biased “fraud” penalty of half a billion dollars, has canceled that threat.

The Washington Examiner confirmed the five-judge panel of the appellate division in New York threw out the judgment delivered by Arthur Engoron, a judge at the entry court level who has been openly derisive of Trump.

The ruling said his judgment was unconstitutional and violated the U.S. Constitution, which bars excessive fines.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had campaigned for office on the promise to “get” President Trump, without citing any evidence of wrongdoing, then created “fraud” claims against him. She alleged that he was guilty over the valuation of his properties in connection with various loans.

Testimony during the trial showed that the banks that loaned Trump money were happy with the transactions, that all the loans were repaid in full, they made money from the deals and they would like to do them again.

Despite the evidence, Engoron, without a jury, claimed Trump was guilty and owed in excess of $300 million in penalties. That grew to more than half a billion dollars with interest, a threat Engoron made against the president that now has vanished.

Reports confirmed the ruling is a major loss for James, who ironically now is under investigation herself for fraud.

She’s accused of misrepresenting her residences in order to obtain preferential mortgage loan treatments, including once when she allegedly characterized her father as a “spouse” and represented a five-apartment building she owns as having four apartments because that would give her a better interest rate.


“While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, 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,” Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton wrote.

Engoron also had set himself up as the expert on real estate values, insisting that Trump’s exotic Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida would be worth about $20 million, when real real estate experts said it would be worth 25 times that.

The remaining injunctive demands from Engoron now can be appealed by Trump to the New York Court of Appeals.

Trump has charged that the case is a political attack by Democrats, like multiple other lawfare cases he faced, from Democrat prosecutors, in recent years, including wild claims he was engaged in an organized crime operation in Florida. Those other lawfare cases now have gone away.

WND had reported only a day earlier that the appeals court was under fire.

They apparently had become “lost in navel-gazing,” instead of delivering justice, according to new charges from constitutional expert Jonathan Turley.

Legal commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano at the time Engoron delivered his ruling said that the judge’s agenda no more or less than “government theft.”

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