Chicago – August 21, 2025
A New York appeals court has thrown out the roughly half-billion dollar judgment against President Donald Trump in the civil fraud case brought by the state’s attorney general.
Thursday’s decision, which was not unanimous, leaves Trump still liable for fraud. The judges upheld his liability and tossed the penalty so the case could move forward for further appellate review.
New York Attorney General Letitia James plans to appeal the ruling.
In the prevailing opinion, the judges wrote, “While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
The appeals court’s ruling is yet another instance where legal action taken against Trump has been either reduced or wiped away completely.
Trump was indicted four times in 2023, in addition to facing the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Lettia James. Both federal cases against him — one over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another related to the mishandling of classified documents — were dropped and dismissed. An election-related state case in Georgia never moved forward and his May 2024 conviction in the New York hush money case resulted in a sentence with no penalties once he won the White House. Trump is still appealing that conviction, too.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said the “monumental” ruling was unusual due to it taking the court nearly a year to reach this decision.
“This is a huge win for Donald Trump, any way you cut it. And this is a stinging rebuke to James,” Honig said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”
Trump claimed “total victory.”
