Letitia James appeals decision voiding excessively punitive penalty against Trump

New York Attorney General Letitia James just hit a judicial wall in her high-stakes pursuit of President Trump.

The Hill reported that James’s nearly half-billion-dollar civil fraud penalty against Trump and his company was tossed out by a divided appeals court on Thursday, though the case persists, while the Justice Department ramps up its own pressure on her with probes into her office and personal dealings.

Let’s rewind to 2022, when James launched her business fraud case against Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization.

After a trial court found them liable for inflating net worth to snag tax and insurance perks, a hefty penalty of $464 million—ballooning to over $527 million with interest—was slapped on the defendants.

Fast forward to Thursday, and a five-judge panel at New York’s mid-level Appellate Division called that penalty excessively punitive, throwing it out despite lacking a majority opinion among their three separate takes.

Still, the judges agreed to push the case toward the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, and James has promised to keep fighting with an appeal of her own.

James Vows to Press Onward

“Not be lost to history” that another court found Trump broke the law, James declared on Thursday, signaling her resolve to ensure her case’s merits aren’t forgotten.

Well, isn’t that a noble stand? But one has to wonder if this relentless pursuit is less about justice and more about political theater in a state where progressive agendas often seem to steer the legal ship.

Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team fired back, labeling James’s efforts a “political crusade” and “lawfare campaign” against the president—hard to argue when the timing feels so suspiciously personal.

Now, flip the script: the Justice Department isn’t sitting idly by, issuing two subpoenas earlier this month from the Northern District of New York, digging into James’s cases against both the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association.

Recall that James sued the NRA in 2020, and a judge last year held its head, Wayne LaPierre, liable for misusing millions for personal extravagance, ordering him to cough up $4.35 million while mandating governance reforms for the group.

The DOJ’s scrutiny doesn’t stop there—they’re also probing a criminal referral from the Federal Housing Finance Agency alleging James misrepresented a Virginia home as her primary residence for better loan terms, a claim that smells of hypocrisy if proven true.

Political Retribution or Fair Play?

Ed Martin, dubbed Trump’s “weaponization czar,” is leading this charge against James, even demanding her resignation in a recent letter and posing for a photo outside her Brooklyn home—a move her lawyer called a “truly bizarre, made-for-media stunt.”

“Highly unprofessional and just inappropriate,” said veteran New York trial lawyer Catherine Christian about the DOJ’s tactics, but let’s be real: turns out actions have consequences, and James’s aggressive targeting of conservative figures might just be coming back to bite.

While the right critiques James for what looks like a vendetta against conservative leaders, the left insists her cases are rooted in evidence, not politics—but in a polarized climate, it’s hard to see this as anything but a two-way street of legal hardball.