A New York appellate court invalidated a nearly $350 million disgorgement award against the Trump Organization as an unconstitutionally excessive fine while upholding findings that Trump inflated asset values and defrauded financial institutions. The court preserved structural injunctions that bar family members from operating businesses in New York and affirmed the Attorney General's authority to bring the suit. The decision produced divided opinions: some justices rejected the monetary remedy under the Eighth Amendment while others identified trial errors requiring further proceedings. The practical outcome removes the large monetary judgment but leaves significant operational restrictions and an affirmed record of fraud.
The good news for Donald Trump is that a New York appellate nixed the nearly half-billion dollar disgorgement judgment the Trump Organization owed for consistently defrauding financial institutions. The bad news is that the fractured court still agreed with the underlying judgment and his business operations are rightly enjoined. Trump's camp is declaring total vindication even though, as opinions go, it's a lot like being told you aren't going to die, but they are going to have to remove a testicle.
The five justices - as a reminder for non-lawyer readers, New York's lower courts are called "Supreme Court" and its judges are "justices," I don't make the rules - didn't agree on much, but the crux of it is that Trump's business empire is no longer on the hook for the roughly $350 million the trial court demanded. The appellate opinion struck down that award, ruling that it amounted to an unconstitutionally excessive fine as opposed to mere disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.
The court affirmed that Trump lied, cheated, and cooked the books to inflate his wealth, and it left intact the structural injunctions effectively barring his family from running a business in New York. But, pop the champagne, Donny! You "won." Or sparkling wine as the case may be... don't want to have to cough up for that new tariff price for the genuine Champagne region.
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