Former President Donald Trump sat with attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove (R) in Manhattan criminal court in New York in 2024. On Thursday, an appeals court tossed out a $500 million judgment against Trump and his Trump Organization. Pool photo by Curtis Means/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A divided appeals court threw on Thursday out the nearly $500 million judgment that President Donald Trump owed to the state of New York for a fraud ruling.
"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 five appeals judges to rule on Trump's appeal.
The First Judicial Department of the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court upheld the fraud ruling, but eliminating the penalty means Trump can move the case to the highest state court, giving him another chance to fight the guilty verdict.
The appeals court said the penalty, "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."
