In a thorough humiliation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, an appeals court threw out the $515 million penalty against President Donald J. Trump in her sham civil fraud case.
Trump was on the hook for the massive judgment meted out by Judge Arthur Engoron, a partisan hack who teamed with the malicious Democrat prosecutor to bring a victimless case against the then-former president, which featured a laughable undervaluation of Mar-a-Lago and ended with the $355 million fine, plus interest.
It was a brazen attempt by Democrats to use lawfare to bankrupt Trump and to prevent him from running in 2024, one that failed to achieve its desired results. And now that James has been spanked on appeal, she is steaming mad at a time when her own mortgage malfeasance has come back to bite her.
After Thursday’s ruling, “Peekaboo” lashed out in a statement in which she defended her sham prosecution by spinning the crushing defeat as a win for her because that appellate court didn’t overturn Engoron’s February 2024 judgment itself.
My statement on the opinion affirming Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud: pic.twitter.com/7OdOVsCWlf
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) August 21, 2025
“The First Department today affirmed the well-supported finding of the trial court: Donald Trump, his company, and two of his children are liable for fraud,” James said.
What she left out was the rebuke of one of the court’s members, Justice David Friedman, who blistered the vindictive Democrat prosecutor in his dissent.
“Plainly, her ultimate goal was not ‘market hygiene’ … but political hygiene, ending with the derailment of President Trump’s political career and the destruction of his real estate business,” he wrote. ”The voters have obviously rendered a verdict on his political career. This bench today unanimously derails the effort to destroy his business.”
If it wasn’t obvious that James’ case was politically motivated from the get-go, she made it clear after Engoron’s ruling by trolling Trump on social over the penalty as interest was added to the already obscene amount.
$464,576,230.62
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 23, 2024
The president took to Truth Social early Friday morning to celebrate his “big win” and call for the “criminal” prosecutor to resign.
(Image: Truth Social)
“Big win today against the totally corrupt and incompetent New York State Attorney General, Leticia James, and her equally incompetent, hand picked, New York State Judge. The 5 to 0 Verdict from the Appellate Division helps greatly to save the status and reputation of the New York Judicial System. Leticia James is a criminal who should be forced to resign!” Trump wrote.
In an earlier, much lengthier post, Trump blasted the “political witch hunt” carried out by Engoron and James.
“It was a Political Witch Hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before. This was a Case of Election Interference by the City and State trying to show, illegally, that I did things that were wrong when, in fact, everything I did was absolutely CORRECT and, even, PERFECT. Every single Dollar was thrown out, even the penalties imposed on us by the Corrupt Judge, one of the most overturned in History, Arthur Engoron. I wasn’t given a Jury and, during the course of the Trial, which lasted a long time, was not given one Ruling in my favor by this Political Hack, but worse than him, if that’s possible, was Letitia James, a Corrupt and Incompetent Attorney General who only brought this Case in order to hurt me politically,” the Thursday Truth Social post read.
“She is a Trump Deranged Lunatic! They made me bond the outrageous sum, which never happened before, and which cost me Millions of Dollars a month. It should have never been allowed to happen, and everyone knew it!” Trump added, also praising Judge Friedman for his “great words of wisdom, which should be read by everyone.”
“Section 63(12) has never been used in the way it is being used in this case – namely, to attack successful, private, commercial transactions, negotiated at arm’s length between highly sophisticated parties fully capable of monitoring and defending their own interests,” Friedman wrote, explaining that he would “reverse the judgment and dismiss the complaint.”
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Author: Chris Donaldson
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