CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that an appeals court’s “monumental” ruling against Democrat Attorney General of New York Letitia James is a “huge win” for President Donald Trump.
A New York appeals court tossed a $515 million civil fraud penalty against Trump on Thursday after a judge ordered that he must pay $355 million in penalties with interest in a case brought by James, who alleged that Trump inflated his net worth. Honig said on “The Situation Room” that he had been “skeptical” of James’ case for a long time and that the ruling finds there were no “actual victims.”
“I’m not [surprised]. I have been skeptical of the attorney general’s case for a long time. I’m on record saying that. This is a huge win for Donald Trump any way you cut it and this is a stinging rebuke to the attorney general, Letitia James,” Honig said.
“The finding here, it’s a very long and complicated ruling, but the bottom line is while the finding of liability against Donald Trump can stand for now, at least, the damages award which started at $315 million with interest, gets up close to $500 million; that is thrown out,” Honig explained. “And the core reason, according to the judges, is essentially that there was not enough of a showing here that there were actual victims.”
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Honig explained that the so-called “victims” in this scenario are billion-dollar banks who received loan payments and “actually profited” from Trump “to the tune of millions of dollars.”
“This ruling by the appeals court is monumental. It was also very unusual in that it took nearly a year to reach this decision,” Honig continued.
James filed the lawsuit in September 2022 alleging that Trump committed fraud while building his real estate business by exaggerating his net worth to receive more favorable loans. Judge Arthur Engoran, who oversaw the case, ruled in James’ favor in a Feb. 16, 2024, ruling and barred Trump from serving as an “officer or director” of any New York corporation or legal entity within a three-year period.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed a “special attorney” to investigate James and Democrat California Sen. Adam Schiff over possible mortgage fraud violations, while grand juries in Maryland and Virginia are currently considering whether to bring charges against them. Department of Justice (DOJ) Special Attorney Ed Martin inspected James’ home in Brooklyn in April as part of this investigation.
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