Lawyers for Donald Trump are set to appear at an appellate court for oral arguments in New York on Thursday as they try to overturn a staggering civil fraud verdict — now nearing $500 million with interest — that the former president and his co-defendants were slapped with earlier this year.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump, the Trump Organization and some of its executives — including Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg — falsified business records for years as they significantly overvalued real estate assets and holdings to secure sweetheart business deals and loans from insurers.
One such overvaluation involved Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Trump had overvalued that property by as much as 2,300%, and he also claimed that his New York penthouse in Trump Tower was three times bigger than its actual size, Engoron found .
After nearly three months of proceedings, Engoron told Trump that the “frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience.” He ordered the former president, the Trump Organization and other related entities pay about $364 million, before interest, to the state of New York.
The total amount has since increased. The current penalty now hovers at $489 million, and interest continues to be tacked on to the tune of more than $110,000 daily as the case lumbers ahead.
Trump managed to post a $175 million bond in April, allowing him to stave off the seizure of his assets. He’d spent weeks simultaneously claiming that he could not secure a bond while bragging that he had enough collateral to secure one. The bond is meant to ensure that Trump will pay his full fine if it is upheld by the courts.
Attorney John Sauer is set to argue for Trump before a five-member panel in the Appellate Division of New York’s First Judicial Department on Thursday. Judy Vale, New York’s deputy solicitor general, is set to present arguments for the state.
It is widely expected that when Trump’s lawyers make their case to overturn Engoron’s verdict this week, they will claim that the judge was essentially too inexperienced to render his decision. In their opening brief to the appeals court, Trump’s lawyers slammed Engoron as someone who “struggled to understand basic banking concepts like a money market account.”
The former president’s team argued that the judge was biased against Trump too, and that he needlessly sided with the New York attorney general’s office during the trial. But perhaps worst of all, Trump’s lawyers contended, is that the ruling inflicted great injury to the entire economy of New York state.
As part of his ruling, Engoron restricted Trump and the Trump Organization’s ability to do business in the state for three years and imposed other sanctions.
“The economic aspects of this decision are a disaster for New York,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “NYAG [the state attorney general] has used the statute in a way never seen before. The statute—a consumer-fraud statute that does not allow for a jury trial—does not apply to this victimless transaction.”
The appeals court in New York has been a tough venue for Trump to secure a victory. The appellate court rejected Trump’s attempts to unwind a gag order placed on him during the trial. And when he lashed out at a jurist on social media and was subsequently fined $15,000, the appeals court rebuffed Trump and his fines were upheld.
Oral arguments are expected to be livestreamed starting at noon Eastern time Thursday. A decision by the appeals court is predicted to take weeks, and judges could opt to fully uphold Engoron’s verdict or modify it. It could also return to Engoron’s court depending on the ruling.
Attorneys for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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