The NYT reports (gift link).
“While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the state,” wrote Peter Moulton, one of the appeals judges whose lengthy and convoluted ruling reflected significant disagreement among the five-judge panel.
This is the intermediate appellate court.
The president’s appeal will now most likely move to New York’s highest court, providing him another opportunity to challenge the finding that he was a fraudster....
The finding that he was a fraudster! They only write like that for Trump. For anyone else, I suspect, they'd name the crime — "that he committed fraud" — and not portray the verdict as labeling the person as a member of category of people who commit this sort of crime. Especially with the jocose "-ster" ending — "fraudster."
In denying Mr. Trump’s bid to throw out the case, the court kept in place the ruling that he had committed fraud....
Justice Moulton’s opinion upholding the case and wiping out the financial penalties received one additional vote, from the chief judge, Dianne Renwick.
Another judge, David Friedman, who has been skeptical of the accusations for years, wanted to throw the case out entirely, believing Ms. James had lacked the power to bring it.
Two other judges concluded that Ms. James had the authority to file the case, but wanted to provide Mr. Trump a new trial....
That's a lot of disarray!
Here's the text of the opinions.
ADDED: Trump exults on Truth Social:
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. Judge Lewis Kaplan, the other remaining Case, whose wife, family, and friends attended his two trials, is as mean and nasty as anyone I have ever met. That Case, also on Appeal, should also never have been brought, and he should be admonished for Abuse, and every other thing that can be thrown at a Corrupt Judge. He loved the publicity, and would not let us present the irrefutable evidence that we wanted to present. This Clinton appointed Judge should not be allowed to get away with this SCAM….
And in case that is too many words, he made it simple 2 minutes later:
পোস্টগুলি
৯০টি মন্তব্য:
Letitties James and Judge Morongowrong hardest hit…
Just a slow crawl back after the BIllionaire's Club appeared on stage at the Trump 47 inauguration. It's a split court decision now, but NY will be begging for forgiveness with their noses in the dirt in two years.
I wondered who the "James" and "Morongowrong" mentioned on the last thread were.
Question for the legal eagles here. When this entire case gets tossed does Trump have case for malicious or wrongful persecution, wait, prosecution?
Cooledster heads prevailed.
As predicted right here the day the idiot handed down the fine.
Passive voice alert!
While harm certainly occurred...
Oh did it? It just occurred with victims in absentia. That is NO harm occurred, because no ONE was harmed. The "victims" Tish identified and called to testify said they were not harmed, and they loved doing business with Trump and would do it again.
Can't the lying stop yet?
Thank you Madame for that reflection on the use of the word fraudster to cover the findings of the judgesters by the newsters.
They only write like that for Trump.
Why it’s almost as though the man were sui generis.
No surprise that NY judges have TDS.
Even leftist “Judges” couldn’t wrangle out what crime Trump committed. None of the “injured” parties claimed injury. The banks all say it was business as usual and Trump was a good customer.
“While harm certainly occurred.”
Really? To who? The banks were paid in full. Subsequent to paying the loans off, the banks wanted more of Trumps business.
"Uphold the case so the appeal could continue"? What can that even mean? I assume if the appellate court ruled the charges without merit, the prosecutor could appeal to the NY highest court.
As to the "-ster" ending, maybe that is terminology appropriate to describe the increasingly numerous NY defendants found guilty of something who receive only a slap on the wrist? A gangster, a rape-ster, a bankrob-ster.
What’s amazing is how much harm on the left is self inflicted.
Sepuku: an honorable way to die when facing defeat.
From my unsophisticated point of view, it looked like they were saying the negotiations themselves were fraudulent. But didn’t the bank do its own due diligence? If that’s the standard, how many real-estate deals would be implicated? Ms. Hochul even told the business community not to worry. But what are the odds Mr. Trump was the only one?
Humperdink said...
“While harm certainly occurred.”
Really? To who?
The New York state court system.
In New York State, the Supreme Court is equivalent to Superior Courts in other states. The highest court in New York is the Court of Appeals. Between the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals are the Appellate Division courts, which recently ruled on this case.
Either way it was going to move on to NY Supreme Court.
“On February 18, 2024, during an interview on WABC 770 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable” with John Catsimatidis, Hochul responded to a question about whether New York businesspeople should worry that “if prosecutors could do that to the former president, they can do that to anybody.” She stated:
“Law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are business people have nothing to worry about because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior.”
In other words, we are not after you, only Trump.
The New York State court system was not harmed, they were embarrassed. The appeals court attempted to recover some dignity.
Just more evidence that justice is dead in NY State. Its a far-left politicized shit-show. God knows what the NY State Supreme court will do. You can be sure it will depend 100 percent on how many biased far-left judges are on Court, and not the facts of the case.
The AG never proved her case, couldn't show what harm was done, and went after Trump purely from spite. At least our Lefty friends know understand two can play their game, as the DOJ is going after Democrats for the same "crime". But of course, all together now, "That's different".
The New York courts will never do the correct thing and toss the entire case. This split decision is just all five judges, knowing the case brought by the state was the true fraud committed trying to split the baby. They tossed out the fine because it was the one hook sure to get Trump into the federal court system once New York's was done with it. The highest court in New York will almost surely confirm the tossing of the ridiculous fine but will also uphold the trial and verdict. Eventually, probably sometime in the next decade, a federal court will toss the entire thing.
It is quite remarkable how strongly people, even appellate court judges, who normally profess to be above the fray, react to the very existence of Donald Trump.
The NYT neve… er, ALWAYS disappoints!
so? it's 34 counts of fraudstering ?
do YOU want a President that was Convicted of fraudsteration?
Keldonric said...
From my unsophisticated point of view, it looked like they were saying the negotiations themselves were fraudulent. But didn’t the bank do its own due diligence? If that’s the standard, how many real-estate deals would be implicated? Ms. Hochul even told the business community not to worry. But what are the odds Mr. Trump was the only one?
That is the point. Every single developer in the state of New York who sought financing did exactly what Trump did and went through the exact same process.
They changed laws and made shit up to get Trump.
They could do the exact same thing to anyone who tried to get financing based on collateral in New York State.
Everyone saw the inherent and blatant Stalinism. The courts in New York do nothing but delegitimize the state government.
"No harm done," while true, isn't really the issue, except perhaps for the size of the fine. Tish herself and that Fed Board member could also claim "no harm done," but that shouldn't get them off the hook for mortgage fraud. The real issue is that Trump committed no fraud in the first place. It was up to the lenders to do due diligence on the collateral values, and in any case Tish's "evidence" that the valuations were inflated was also contrived.
323 pages of judicial opinion. I wonder how much was "written" by GPT/LLM.
And the harm? Did they say what it was? Or did they just skip over that part as not worth their time?
this is the court house with the moloch on the roof, in Roman times you would call this a proscription, like what Sulla did to Marius, but hihthe circle turned
they could have had the two demon dogs, but it would have been too obvious,
Leftsters gonna left.
The real problem is not this case, it is the fact that it took so many years for Trump and his organization to be held legally accountable for actions that would have resulted in criminal sanctions and liability for any small business owner. It will be interesting to see what the final appeal is.
Additionally, as far as "lawfare" and wasting resources is concerned, right now the Trump administration is engaging in legal threats to judges; it is denying ordinary citizens and resident aliens basic legal protections, it is marshalling millions of dollars of resources and engaging the services of multiple federal agencies to catch people doing "fare evasion" at metro stops in DC.
The real issue is the absolute lack of legal accountability for the rich and powerful across the board. Trump's good friend Jeffrey Epstein was able to operate for years as a consequence of these legal failures. Trump himself received an absurd amount of legal deference in recent years simply because of his status, money and his political connections.
I agree with the comment about "fraudster" being terminology only used for DJT, but I'm not sure 'jocose' applies. They aren't called mobsters because it's cutesy.
Kak, you just said that the real thing is how long it took to hold Trump accountable for "actions that would have resulted in criminal sanctions and liability for any small business owner. "
Except the Democrat govenor of New York explicitly said that "no, this is only Trump. No one else has to worry, because this only applies to Trump."
So 1) you are wrong and 2) isn't that the very definition of an unconstitutional criminal law that only applies to one person, the political opponent of the governor?
as usual lionel hutz, plagiarized it from somewhere else,
What bothers me is the selective nature of the process instead of neutral discretion. The lack of publicized action regarding Mr. Paxton stands out. FHFA has the loan data. I’d be surprised if there isn’t already a dashboard tracking anomalies. With all the mortgages they oversee through Fannie and Freddie, it wouldn’t be hard to flag outliers like occupancy misrepresentation, sudden valuation jumps, or odd loan-to-value ratios. A neutral screen of public officials would surely turn up some on both sides.
My perception is that this case was pursued so aggressively only because of who Mr. Trump is. Same with mortgages, if you’re on the right side of the administration in power then no problem; if not, there you go. I just want principle to rule the day — maybe that makes me a dreamer.
they sent down the no 3 at justice, to cook up this stew if you recall (name escapes me)
Clay and Buck and the WSJ said Trump won.
This is not really new stuff. Governor Fife Symington of Arizona was indicted and hounded from office during the Clinton administration for a real estate deal gone bad. The lender was a union who refused to do an appropriate workout. Other Republican Senators and Governors have been lawfared out of office since then.
Poor Kaka on the wrong side of another losing case vs Trump. Now whining again.
next for shur (cue Bulwinkle,
Gilbar: The 34 felonies case was about paying off the nuisance case of the lady in a hotel room; this case was about the value of Mar a Largo in a real estate transaction.
Free advice to the Prez:
Divest your holdings and never do business in New York again.
NYT tricksters attack "fraudster".
Either way it was going to move on to NY Supreme Court.
Sure. But it's getting harder and harder to justify the case, isn't it? The Appeals Court is going to have to create quite the Byzantine pretzel to make it seem that justice was done in the original trial.
And also, Kak is full of it with the claim that "any small business owner" would have been prosecuted under this standard... since literally none has.
"That Case, also on Appeal, should also never have been brought, and he should be admonished for Abuse, and every other thing that can be thrown at a Corrupt Judge." Trump writes in a style Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence.
I'm a lawyer, but criminal law is not my field. Apart from the merits (not that I think this case had any), what puzzles me is how this can be a civil case. The banks had no complaint, so they weren't suing. The state wasn't hurt and had no damages either. In criminal cases, of course, no one but the state need care. But if this had been a criminal case, Trump would have had various Constitutional protections that defendants in civil cases don't get. Can states, or for that matter the Feds, turn conduct they dislike that might be criminal into a civil case with financial and other penalties other than incarceration just by enacting a law that does that? That's what happens with things like traffic violations, but if they can do it across the board it would seem to be a way to evade the Constitutional protections for defendants in criminal cases.
#kakiswack
narciso said...
"they sent down the no 3 at justice, to cook up this stew if you recall (name escapes me)"
________________
I think you are referring to Matthew Colangelo.
yeah that guy,
Keep the fraud conviction. It will keep the left from whining when their politicians go to jail for a clearer cut case of fraud.
Justice Moulton’s opinion upholding the case and wiping out the financial penalties received one additional vote, from the chief judge, Dianne Renwick.
Another judge, David Friedman, who has been skeptical of the accusations for years, wanted to throw the case out entirely, believing Ms. James had lacked the power to bring it.
Two other judges concluded that Ms. James had the authority to file the case, but wanted to provide Mr. Trump a new trial....
So only two judges voted to uphold the fraud convictions (and one only because a new trial would not be quickly available due to Trump currently being President - so he would have voted for a new trial, which would then have prevailed, but for Trump!); while one wanted to throw the whole thing out and exonerate Trump and two wanted to throw the whole thing out and order a new trial. Three thought the verdict should be tossed - why isn't that the result?
I myself seem to have received, unaccountably, extreme deference when I applied for a home equity loan 25 years ago. I did not claim my homes assessed property tax value (which the NY court insisted on), but my estimate of market value. The bank had it assessed as they usually do, and agreed with me. This per the Trump case (granted NY vs CA) is illegal and causes "harm".
Also, the court was really not "divided" - all of them agreed that, one way or the other, the fine had to go.
I did not claim my homes assessed property tax value (which the NY court insisted on), but my estimate of market value.
I contend that this case is as much about setting the precedent that the government sets the market price of things as much as it is about getting Trump. Rather than calling this anti-Trump; it is really anti-free market capitalism. And that part of the decision was held. New York is a communist state, and people should treat it as such.
Considering the venue (New York), this is probably as close to justice as one can expect.
Harm? What harm? How convenient for them to not specify.
As Jeff Childers says, TAW.
I believe the correct term these days is fraud involved person.
In fairness to the NYT, what do you call a person convicted of fraud?
Someone convicted of murder is called a murderer; someone convicted of extortion an extortionist. A "fraudist?" A "defrauder?"
Fraudster-adjacent published without evidence. He should sue NYT for one billion dollars and an order to gag them.
Lance said...
323 pages of judicial opinion. I wonder how much was "written" by GPT/LLM.
Ohm no, this one is full of things written by people who think their farts are teh sweetest smelling farts int he world, and they wanted to make usre we all experience them.
Link: https://nycourts.gov/courts/AD1/calendar/AppsMots/2025/apps/20250821/2023-04925,%20et%20ano..pdf
Another part of the case was the lower court's sanctions against the defense lawyers for repetitious motions after adverse rulings. That was also unanimously reversed. But the majority also found from its review of the record that the trial judge acted fairly and unbiased.
Coincidentally, today the Ninth Circuit rejected a request for en banc review of affirmace of an Arizona district court's sanctions order against Kari Lake's attorneys in her election case. But there was a vigorous dissent from conservative judges arguing that the federal courts see many cases with out there claims that do not result in sanctions against counsel, especially in an election case with First Amendment considerations.
"The finding that he was a fraudster!"
At least they didn't call him a Fraudmeister. That would be worse.
While harm certainly occurred...
Stopped reading right there.
The Appellate Division apparently bought the argument that it's "fraud" for a property owner in New York to assert that a property is worth more than its tax-assessed value. EVERY real estate developer or investor would be harmed by such a ruling. It's NOT "just Trump". If I Trump decides not to take the case to the Court of Appeals because there's no fine to pay, and this becomes "the Law" of New York, a lot of real estate developers ought to be very worried.
Kakistocracy said...
Either way it was going to move on to NY Supreme Court.
We've got him now!
Madtown Guy: “ At least they didn't call him a Fraudmeister. That would be worse.”
Or Fraudy McFraudface.
RR
JSM
On the basis of legal risk, the whole NY Home Equity loan business should have died in 2024. I don't see how would-be-creditors can take on such risks, whatever their size. Or any sort of bank loan really, as most have collateral requirements which it seems some court can eventually dispute. Anyone who has, or who has ever had, such a loan should probably flee NY. Anyone at all who attracts official attention runs the risk of a prosecutor adding-on a home loan fraud charge with a substantial penalty, even if not in the hundreds of millions.
I am a perennial critic of the misgovernance of California, but they have not, at least, gone this far.
"Trump himself received an absurd amount of legal deference in recent years simply because of his status, money and his political connections."
... possibly the most preposterous statement in the history of Althouse comments.
Many odd aspects about the decision. Three of the five justices concluded that the AG had not proven the fraud claims ( two found most of the allegedly fraudulent transactions were time-barred and the non-barred ones were invalid because of egregious trial court errors, while one concluded that the AG lacked standing and her claims were not actionable under the relevant statute).
That would normally result in a reversal of the judgment and a remand for a new trial, possibly before a new judge. But, instead, the two justices who found that the fraud claims were not proven and that most of them were time-barred signed on to the decretal order affirming the judgment and its finding of liability along with the non-monetary relief ordered below, supposedly to create a final judgment that the Court of Appeals could then accept for further appellate review. But (1) whether to grant review is discretionary with the Court of Appeals (similar to the certiorari process in federal practice); (2) the Appellate Division (but not the Court of Appeals) has the power to grant leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals from a non-final order. In short, if the objective was to speed this case along for further appellate review, the Appellate Division had a much better and far more sensible way to accomplish that, without the very bizarre move of having two justices who wrote a long opinion saying why the judgment could NOT be affirmed nevertheless signing on to a decretal order that affirmed it.
Many more bizarre aspects about this decision but that one is a doozy.
"They only write like that for Trump."
A phrase with many opportunities to be used both past and future.
"The finding that he was a fraudster! They only write like that for Trump. For anyone else, I suspect, they'd name the crime "
Althouse is bad at logic.
1) She can suspect anything she wants.. But to be taken seriously she needs to show her proof. What have they called the other POTUS folks that have been convicted of fraud? In those situations did they call them 'fraudsters?"
2) Obviously, saying someone is a convicted fraudster = saying someone is convicted of fraud, likewise the other way around. That's how logic works. So Althosuse fussing about a supposed slight to the convicted fraud person because they were called a fraudster person instead of a fraud person is her grasping at straws. Lamely.
3) re; "And in case that is too many words, he made it simple 2 minutes later" I did read all of the hyperbolic bluster statement, so I didn't need the image summary. i.e. DJT as a wimpy old dude w/ a messed up face (re tone/color and saggy/baggy-ness.) DJT folks should have done one of those AI images that shows DJT with muscles and a big dick. At this point South Park and GCN have proved that the emperor has no clothes, and his pee pee is wee wee.
SAD!
megyn kelly and co
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjWdGcnnub8
The View ladies should be forced to each eat a bowl of dog shit on live TV.
must watch
Kak - you really are a total fraud.
"The View ladies should be forced to each eat a bowl of dog shit on live TV."
If Trump signed an executive order prohibiting it, they'd do it without being forced.
Trump did nothing wrong, no one was de-frauded.
the judge, Le-Tit James - both need to be in prison. or financially ruined and set on fire, and thrown into the canal and run over by a truck covered in spikes.
The judge in the case and Le-Tit James are both criminals who should be removed from office, disbarred and disgraced as they rot in prison.
Mason - I say we petition Trump to do it.
Peach,
Thanks for the link to the video.
1) If Wilt Chamberlain is at 20,000, where is Will Chamberlain? Is it 2,000, or 200, or....20?
If I was pushed to make a call, I'd take the under on that twenty number. IMHO, he has strong dork vibes, and he is not rich so I don't think he got to twenty.
2) Why doesn't Will Chamberlain understand that he needs to: a) narrow the view of his camera, or b) get more books so he doesn't have empty bookshelves behind him? Is it possible that he purposefully created this heinous video backdrop for some sort of artistic reason? If he did do that, I've underestimated him. Though it's still hard to see that he's above twenty re question one.
IDK.
All a rational person would need to know is that AG James spoke loudly and clearly that she would NOT be applying this reasoning to any other real estate developers.
[Please don't leave, pretty please]
Richard Dolan said...
But (1) whether to grant review is discretionary with the Court of Appeals (similar to the certiorari process in federal practice);
Apparently that's wrong. When at least 2 judges below find error the way those two did, the Court of Appeals (which is what the NY State Supreme Court calls itself, since it's the low level "Superior Courts" that get the name "Supreme Courts" in NY) HAS to take the case.
So, they did a chickenshit move to push the onus onto the higher court
Greg TCC:
The problem with your view is that an appeal as of right to the Court of Appeals requires "an order of the appellate division which finally determined the action, where there is a dissent by at least two justices on a question of law in favor of the party taking such appeal" (CPLR 5601(a)). Four of the five justices did the opposite: they entered an order affirming the judgment as to liability, while all five of them agreed that the monetary sanctions had to be vacated. The subject of an appeal is the "order" entered by the Appellate Division, not the rationales relied upon by the lower court. Here, that order is flatly inconsistent with the reasoning below, but the fact remains that the App Div order affirmed the judgment by a vote of 4-1. There was no dissent from that order by two justices.
So, the route to the Court of Appeals is either by leave of the Court of Appeals,which is discretionary, from an order that finally determined the action, (CPLR 5602(a)(1)); or by leave granted by the Appellate Division, which can be granted from a final or non-final order (CPLR 5602(b)). It's an oddity of NY practice that the Appellate Division has broader authority to grant leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals than the Court of Appeals has itself.
Alan said,
" But if this had been a criminal case, Trump would have had various Constitutional protections that defendants in civil cases don't get."
Now you know why they presented it as a civil case. They weren't trying to uphold any law. They were trying to destroy a man.
Or to put it another way. They would knock down all the laws of New York just to get at Trump.
Trump writes in a style Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence.
The pithy opening to the Declaration of Independence is by Franklin.
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