New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday appealed a court's decision to toss out a $500 million penalty on President Donald Trump and his company in connection with business fraud.
The appeal comes two weeks after that punishment imposed by a trial court judge on Trump was voided by the First Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division.
That court said the fine violated the U.S Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which prohibits "excessive fines."
James is asking the New York Court of Appeals — the state's highest court — to reverse that decision.
The Appellate Division, in its ruling tossing out the fine on Trump, upheld Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron's finding that Trump and the others committed business fraud.
Engoron ruled that Trump and other defendants overstated the purported value of real estate assets owned by the Trump Organization to inflate Trump's net worth. In turn, those bogus valuations helped Trump's company get better terms on loans and other financial benefits, the judge ruled.
Engoron cited those findings in imposing the massive fine on Trump and other defendants.
The notice of appeal filed on Thursday is brief and does not detail the arguments for why James believes the decision should be overturned. Those arguments will be laid out in future filings.
A spokeswoman for James had no comment on the filing.
A spokesman for Trump's legal team, in a statement, said, "New York AG Letitia James' political crusade against President Trump, which is barred by the Statute of Limitations, where she valued Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, FL, which is worth at least $2 billion dollars, at a ridiculous $18 million, and engaged in a ton of other fatal errors, was already annihilated by the New York Appellate Division, First Department."
"Tish James should focus on her own problems and stop wasting New York State taxpayers' hard earned dollars on her failed Witch Hunt against President Trump, his family, and the magnificent business that he built," the spokesman said.
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