Letitia James Appeals Her $500 Million Defeat in Trump Case, as Embattled Prosecutor Also Faces Mortgage Fraud Probe

The filing of a notice of appeal by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, in the civil fraud case against President Trump puts in sharp relief the Democratic prosecutor’s determination to restore her $500 million judgment.This comes as the Trump Department of Justice’s special attorney for mortgage fraud, Ed Martin, is investigating her personal finances. A grand jury is also investigating whether she violated Mr. Trump’s rights in the same civil fraud case that yielded the now jeopardized half a billion dollars.Ms. James’s notice of appeal was filed on Thursday at the New York court of appeals, the highest tribunal in the Empire State. Mr. Trump has already filed notice of his intention to appeal the ruling of the appellate division of the New York state supreme court, which wiped out that gargantuan judgment but left intact the underlying finding of liability for “persistent fraud.”The fractured and somewhat muddled ruling of the appellate division — the justices took nearly a year to reach a decision, suggesting deep divides — has resulted in the case’s unusual posture on appeal. Both sides are claiming victory but also petitioning for review. Ms. James accuses Mr. Trump, his two adult sons, and their family of committing “massive fraud” by inflating the value of their real estate property for better loan terms. She was awarded the lopsided verdict by a judge, Arthur Engoron, who’d found the Trump Organization guilty without a trial. It was apparent from the onset of the penalty phase of the proceedings that the matter would likely be resolved on appeal.Ms. James first filed her suit against the Trumps in September 2022, a period in which Mr. Trump’s standing was at, perhaps, an all-time low. The previous month, the FBI had searched Mar-a-Lago. In November 2022 Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel. In March 2023, District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Mr. Trump with felonies related to the adult film performer Stormy Daniels. Mr. Trump’s enemies were emboldened and their quarry seemed weak.Now Mr. Trump is president again and Ms. James stands accused of committing mortgage fraud herself. She is the subject of a criminal investigation first launched by the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, himself the heir to a titanic home construction fortune. The Department of Justice is probing whether she lied on mortgage documents relating to homes at Brooklyn and Norfolk, Virginia.While it is unclear when the court of appeals will take up her fraud case against Mr. Trump, the appeal will unfold against growing, personal legal peril for Ms. James, who ran for office promising to probe a president she called “illegitimate” and an “embarrassment.” When she first filed her suit against him she declared, “While he may have authored the ‘Art of the Deal,’ our case revealed that his business was based on the art of the steal.” Judge Engoron, the presiding trial judge, agreed. He found, without the benefit of a jury, that “the frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience.” Mr. Trump called Judge Engoron “tyrannical and unhinged” and reckoned that he “HAS GONE CRAZY IN HIS HATRED OF ‘TRUMP.’” The president also railed against Judge Engoron’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, now an elected judge herself on the Democratic ticket. While Judge Engoron’s verdict is void — for now — the host of other penalties he levied are intact. These include bans on the Trumps conducting business in New York as well as the appointment of a monitor within the Trump Organization to ensure its compliance with the law. The appellate division refrained from overturning those penalties, instead punting their fate upward to New York’s highest court. At least one justice of the appellate division, David Friedman, would have granted Mr. Trump a complete reversal. He called Judge Engoron’s ruling “infirm in every respect” and determined that Ms. James “had no power to bring this case.” For Justice Friedman, the case’s original sin was its reliance on Mr. Trump’s erstwhile lawyer, Michael Cohen, whom the judge accurately calls a “convicted perjurer.”Justice Friedman’s position, though, did not carry the day. The five-justice court failed to produce a single majority opinion, though a quorum of judges decided that Judge Engoron’s punishment amounted to “an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The court found, “While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the state.”The Constitution ordains that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” One judge, Peter Moulton, rejected the prospect of a new trial as “both Sisyphean and unneeded, because an extensive trial record already exists” and it would be a course that “would likely consign this meritorious case to oblivion.”Ms. James is also facing a separate federal investigation — it is not yet known whether it is civil, criminal, or both — into whether the civil fraud case violated Mr. Trump’s civil rights. A federal grand jury upstate authorized the issuance of subpoenas relating to that matter. The grand jury has also authorized the issuance of subpoenas relating to Ms. James’s efforts to put the National Rifle Association out of business.

Letitia James Appeals Her $500 Million Defeat in Trump Case, as Embattled Prosecutor Also Faces Mortgage Fraud Probe

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