The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal on Monday (early Tuesday AEDT) asking the state’s mid-level appeals court to overturn Judge Arthur Engoron’s February 16 verdict in Attorney-General Letitia James’ lawsuit and reverse staggering penalties that threaten to wipe out Trump’s cash reserves.
Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers that they’re asking the appeals court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction.
Trump’s appeal paperwork did not address whether Trump was seeking to pause collection of the judgment while he appeals by putting up money, assets or an appeal bond covering the amount owed to qualify for an automatic stay.
Messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers and the New York attorney-general’s office.
Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr, schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals. Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organisation, to do business.
The appeal ensures that the legal fight over Trump’s business practices will persist into the thick of the presidential primary season, and likely beyond, as he tries to clinch the Republican presidential nomination in his quest to retake the White House.
If upheld, Engoron’s ruling will force Trump to give up a sizeable chunk of his fortune. Engoron ordered Trump to pay $US355 million ($543 million) in penalties, but with interest the total has grown to nearly $US454 million ($695 million). That total will increase by nearly $US112,000 ($171,000) per day until he pays.
Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about $US400 million ($612 million) in cash, in addition to properties and other investments. James, a Democrat, told ABC News that if Trump is unable to pay, she will seek to seize some of his assets.
Trump’s appeal was expected. Trump had vowed to appeal and his lawyers had been laying the groundwork for months by objecting frequently to Engoron’s handling of the trial.
Trump said Engoron’s decision, the costliest consequence of his recent legal troubles, was “election interference” and “weaponisation against a political opponent”.
Trump complained he was being punished for “having built a perfect company, great cash, great buildings, great everything”.
Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise said after the verdict that the former president was confident the appeals court “will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made by a trial court untethered to the law or to reality”.
“Given the grave stakes, we trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious verdict and end this relentless persecution against my clients,” Trump lawyer Alina Habba said.
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If the decision stands, Habba said, “it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business”.
Trump wasn’t able to appeal the decision immediately because the clerk’s office at Engoron’s courthouse had to file paperwork known as a judgment to make it official. That was done on Friday, starting a 30-day window for Trump to pay up or file an appeal and seek a stay.
During the trial, Trump’s lawyers accused Engoron of “tangible and overwhelming” bias. They’ve also objected to the legal mechanics of James’ lawsuit. Trump contends the law she sued him under is a consumer-protection statute that’s normally used to rein in businesses that rip off customers.
Trump’s lawyers have already gone to the Appellate Division at least 10 times to challenge Engoron’s prior rulings, including during the trial in an unsuccessful bid to reverse a gag order and $US15,000 ($23,000) in fines for violations after Trump made a disparaging and false social media post about a key court staffer.
Trump’s lawyers have long argued that some of the allegations are barred by the statute of limitations, contending that Engoron failed to comply with an Appellate Division ruling last year that he narrow the scope of the trial to weed out outdated allegations.
If Trump is unsuccessful at the Appellate Division, he can ask the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, to consider taking his case.
The appeal is one of Trump’s many legal challenges. He has been indicted on criminal charges four times in the last year. He is accused in Georgia and Washington, DC, of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. In Florida, he is charged with hoarding classified documents.
He is scheduled to go on trial next month in Manhattan for falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels on his behalf.
In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $US83.3 million ($127.4 million) to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. That’s on top of the $US5 million ($7.65 million) a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year.
