I guess this was always inevitable. From the New York Post,
A New York appeals court Thursday threw out the massive $464 million judgment dealt to President Trump after he was found liable at a civil trial for business fraud.
To emphasize, this was a civil case, brought by the state of New York against Trump, where they never showed that there was any victim(s) of his alleged “fraud.”
I didn’t follow the case very closely, as it always seemed designed more to produce anti-Trump headlines during last year’s election than to deliberate any issues of substance.
After rehashing the “facts” of the noncase, the Post eventually reports,
The ruling comes after some members of the five-judge appeals panel appeared skeptical in September of the merits of the lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which led to the trial.
Judge Peter Moulton called the size of the penalty “troubling” and questioned if the law James had used to sue Trump — which doesn’t technically require someone to be “harmed” — had “morphed into something it was not meant to do.”
That should be the end of it, but it appears not,
Trump has posted a bond of $175 million as he appeals the ruling, and will get the chance to further challenge it next in the Empire State’s highest appeals court, the New York State Court of Appeals.
Reuters clarifies today’s outcome,
The appeals court was splintered.
Two judges found Trump was properly held liable, and James “vindicated a public interest” by pursuing her fraud case, but the penalty was an excessive fine that violated the U.S. Constitution.
Two other judges also found James had authority to sue, but a new trial was necessary because the trial judge should not have held Trump liable for fraud at the outset. The fifth judge said the case against Trump should have been dismissed.
James, the prosecutor (plaintiff?) in the case has legal problems of her own. From Fox News,
[T]he [U.A.] DOJ initiated two grand jury investigations into James, one in the Northern District of New York related to her civil fraud lawsuit against President Donald Trump and one related to mortgage fraud allegations in Virginia, where James helped her niece purchase a home in 2023.
Glass houses, etc.
