The New York attorney general’s office late Wednesday night urged a state appellate court to uphold a more than $450 million civil fraud judgment against Donald J. Trump, arguing that the punishment was needed to protect “the integrity of the marketplace.”
In a legal filing, the attorney general, Letitia James, defended a judge’s February ruling that Mr. Trump had conspired to inflate the value of his properties to receive favorable loans and other financial benefits. Mr. Trump, the attorney general’s office has argued, exaggerated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in any given year.
“Mr. Trump indisputably participated in the fraud,” Ms. James’s office wrote in response to an appeal filed last month by Mr. Trump, adding that he, his adult sons and his company had “used a variety of deceptive strategies.”
The response marked the latest phase of a battle between Mr. Trump and Ms. James that has spanned the better part of five years. The appeals court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 26 and its decision could come by year-end, coinciding with the final stretch of a presidential campaign that has pitted Mr. Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ms. James, a Democrat who campaigned for her office on the promise of bringing Mr. Trump to justice, began to investigate the former president in 2019 and filed the lawsuit in 2022. Since then, Mr. Trump has lost nearly every step of the way. Even before the trial, the judge overseeing the case, Arthur F. Engoron, ruled against Mr. Trump, finding that he had committed fraud by inflating his assets.
The trial was held largely to determine how much Mr. Trump, his company and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would owe the state. Justice Engoron was the decider — there was no jury — and after 11 weeks and 40 witnesses, he ordered Mr. Trump to pay $355 million plus interest, a total of more than $450 million.
He also barred Mr. Trump from serving in top roles at any New York company, including portions of his own business, the Trump Organization, for three years. And the judge prohibited Mr. Trump from securing loans from banks registered in New York for the same amount of time. The punishments are on hold during his appeal.
Justice Engoron also extended the appointment of a independent monitor to serve as the court’s eyes and ears within the Trump Organization.
In response, Mr. Trump attacked Ms. James and Justice Engoron, decrying the case against him as a political witch hunt. He has also called Ms. James, who is Black, a “racist,” and given her a nickname reminiscent of a racial slur.
A lawyer for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In their appeal filed in July, Mr. Trump’s lawyers had argued that the judgment was excessive and that his habitual exaggerations were business as usual. They also asserted that Mr. Trump’s purported victims — the banks that had given him lower interest rates because of his inflated claims of wealth — had turned a profit.
But on Wednesday, Ms. James’s office contended that the law she had used to sue Mr. Trump did not require her to prove the banks had lost money. Nor did she have to show that Mr. Trump had intended fraud. The state is entitled to seek repayment of Mr. Trump’s ill-gotten gains on the interest he saved, Ms. James’s office argued, adding that Justice Engoron had acted within his “discretion in awarding relief based on defendants’ numerous and blatant violations.”
The attorney general’s office also rebutted another of Mr. Trump’s central arguments — that its claims against Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization were too old to be valid.
Ms. James’s lawyers pointed to a 2021 agreement that they said extended the deadline for filing the case and binds both the Trump Organization and its officers, including Mr. Trump. They also noted that the appeals court had already considered the issue and had allowed the case against Mr. Trump to continue while removing his daughter Ivanka Trump from the case.
Mr. Trump is battling an array of legal woes. In May, a Manhattan jury convicted him on criminal charges of falsifying business records. Mr. Trump, who has appealed and is seeking to delay his Sept. 18 sentencing until after Election Day, faces up to four years in prison, but could receive a shorter sentence or probation.
While that case jeopardized his freedom, the fraud trial challenged his image as a successful businessman. Justice Engoron’s ruling in February threatened to wipe out his stockpile of cash.
The former president was rejected by more than 30 bond companies that were unwilling to promise money for the judgment while he appealed. He avoided a financial crisis only after the appeals court accepted a smaller bond.
If Mr. Trump loses, he could find his cash reserves erased and some of his namesake properties in jeopardy. Ms. James could also freeze his bank accounts and seize some of those properties.
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