Every time someone fires at President Trump in court and misses, it makes him stronger.
The turning point in the 2024 election wasn’t even the assassination attempt or even Joe Biden dropping out.
It was the Mar-a-Lago raid. That raid turned the entire election on its head, because people rightly believed that Trump was being politically persecuted.
On Thursday, there was another case of someone firing at Trump legally and missing.
You might recall a decision that came down last year from a New York court and a trial judge that found Trump was liable for fraud. Why? Because when he was getting loans, he had supposedly made statements about his properties and the value of his properties, and then he got loans based on the value of the properties.
None of those loans were in default. He ended up paying back all of those loans. No lenders complained about any of this.
But New York State Attorney General Letitia James decided she was going to target him. So she jerry-rigged an entire case that violated the actual essence of the law — because the law was not designed for any of this.
James had actually put out a tweet in February 2024 celebrating the amount Trump was fined: $464,576,230.62.
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According to The Wall Street Journal:
A New York appeals court threw out a more than $500 million penalty against President Trump and his business empire, in a sharply splintered ruling that paves the way for further proceedings before the state’s highest court.
The decision on Thursday from a five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division’s First Department is a significant legal boost for Trump, freeing him, for now, from a massive penalty that caused him financial headaches last year. …
“While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the State,” Justice Peter Moulton wrote…
This was a bizarre award in the first place, given the fact that the supposed crime was not committed against the state of New York. It was a misread of the law. Judge David Friedman said that the law that originally enabled Letitia James to sue President Trump was designed to protect consumers and the public marketplace from deception and consumer transactions. It was not designed to protect lenders, who were not the ones who were damaged.
The court wrote:
A.G. James’s suit turns section 63(12) on its head, the leniency with which the courts have construed the requirements for pleading and proving fraud under that section, a leniency that has been extended for the purposes of facilitating the use of the provision to prevent the exploitation of unsophisticated consumers, investors and small business, is here being used by Attorney General Letitia James to apply section 63(12) to a scenario to which that provision has never before been applied or even thought to apply.
The court basically said, “You have got to be kidding me. $500 million fine? Are you kidding me?”
So Letitia James put out a statement, saying:
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.
The court upheld the injunctive relief we won, limiting Donald Trump and the Trump Organization officers’ ability to do business in New York. It should not be lost to history: yet another court has ruled that the president violated the law, and that our case has merit.
We will seek appeal to the Court of Appeals and continue to protect the rights and interests of New Yorkers.
She claimed that the part of the decision saying that her filing wasn’t illegal was a vindication for her.
But if the thing that she was bragging about went away, namely, a $500 billion penalty, then she lost.
And that’s the point that President Trump was making on Truth Social, writing:
TOTAL VICTORY in the FAKE New York State Attorney General Letitia James Case! I greatly respect the fact that the Court had the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision that was hurting Business all throughout New York State. Others were afraid to do business there. The amount, including Interest and Penalties, was over $550 Million Dollars. 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. 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! Importantly, the Vote was 5 to 0. I am so honored by Justice David Friedman’s great words of wisdom, which should be read by everyone. I would also like to thank the Court for having the Courage to make this Decision, which is already going down as one of the worst business persecutions in the History of our Country.
Sadly, there are other Cases against me that are equally disgraceful, including those headed up by Corrupt Judges, like Juan Merchan, whose daughter collected Millions of Dollars in Fees from Crooked Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, while her father shockingly REFUSED TO RECUSE himself from a vicious and corrupt trial, which is also under Appeal, one in which every Legal Pundit in New York said, “THERE WAS NO CASE!” — Even Editorial Boards said, “DO NOT DO THIS!” Judge Merchan gave me an unprecedented Gag Order, not letting me talk about him or his daughter, or the fact that the Appellate Judges thought he should not be doing the Case, but he did it anyway. Many Lawyers said that his daughter and him created the Greatest Conflict of Interest they had ever seen.
The bottom line: this was a big victory for Trump. Even CNN legal analyst Elie Hoenig, no ally of President Trump, said, “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.”
That is correct.
And Trump just got stronger.
