Engoron Fines Trump $355M, Barred from Business in NY

Does Arthur Engoron take checks? The judge in the civil lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James handed down a $355 million judgment for damages and penalties for “fraudulent business practices” earlier this afternoon. Engoron also fined both of Trump’s sons an additional $4 million each after finding them liable as well.

He didn’t deliver a death penalty to the Trump Organization, but Trump can’t operate the company for three years — assuming this decision holds up:

BREAKING: Judge fines former President Trump more than $300 million in civil fraud trial and bars him from running businesses in New York for three years. https://t.co/HQkLymO3At pic.twitter.com/CMY7Jg7x36

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 16, 2024

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and the Trump Organization to pay over $350 million in damages, and bars Trump “from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years.”

He also continued “the appointment of an Independent Monitor” and ordered “the installation of an Independent Director of Compliance” for the company.

The judgment is the second this year against Trump after he was hit last month with an $83.3 million verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him. The former president could also face four criminal trials this year as his presidential campaign barrels toward the November election, with the first set to begin in New York state court on March 25th.

How much of this judgment will go to the victims of Trump’s alleged fraud? That’s a trick question, of course; there are no victims of the fraud alleged by James. The lawsuit uncovered some shady games played by the company in valuations to get loans, but Trump paid those loans off. No one lost any money, not even the state or city of New York on taxation. Had the latter been an issue, this would have been a criminal rather than civil case. And you can bet your last dollar that James looked very hard for any evidence of tax fraud in these transactions, and came up empty. Hence the lawsuit over a “fraud” with no victims at all. 

For that reason, this case always looked political. It didn’t help that James ran for office on an explicit campaign promise to go after Trump. It also doesn’t boost confidence in this case that Engoron concluded immediately that Trump committed fraud and only heard testimony on sentencing. 

For all of these reasons, Trump probably has some reason for optimism for appeals. However, Trump isn’t any more well liked in higher courts, at least not in the state system. Trump would probably prefer to challenge this in federal court, but there may not be solid constitutional grounds for a federal court to review here. Perhaps his attorneys could craft a due-process issue on the trial or Eighth Amendment arguments on the penalties, which appear draconian on their face, especially in light of having no established victims of this supposed fraud. But those will likely have to wait while Trump appeals in New York courts first.

In the meantime, the Trump Organization can continue to operate, sans Trump, which comes as a mild surprise. Engoron had hinted at a corporate death penalty, but apparently thought better of it:

While Judge Arthur Engoron barred Donald Trump from serving as an officer or director of a New York corporation in New York for three years, he did not dissolve the business certificates for the Trump Organization, as he had initially laid out in his summary judgment issued last year.

Engoron wrote that his September order was “modified solely to the extent of vacating the directive to cancel defendants’ business certificates.”

Had Engoron pursued that order, appeals courts would have been forced to intervene. Perhaps he’s hoping that merely forcing Trump out of the organization will keep a higher court from immediately freezing these actions. If so, Engoron didn’t do himself any favors with this demented observation:

“This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff,” Engoron wrote.

In what world does a “venial sin” require a $355 million penalty and the removal of a business owner from his own business? Even the mention of Bernie Madoff in this context is absurd and a clear sign of prejudice on Engoron’s part. James couldn’t find anyone who lost money from these transactions; Madoff stole and destroyed over $19 billion in real assets from his investors and upward of $50 billion in projected assets.

An appeals court should take note of Engoron’s clear personal hostility in these proceedings — as well as a number of other instances of nonsense in this lawsuit — and toss out the whole proceeding.  

I’m not the only one scoffing, either. Jonathan Turley called into Fox News to quip that Engoron had proved only Oscar Wilde’s old maxim:

BREAKING: Legal scholar Professor Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) EXPLODES After Judge Engoron Hits Trump with $364 Million Fine and 3-Year Ban in New York Civil Fraud Case, Says, “None of us could find a case like this!” Well, no one else has gone through this!!!!! WATCH pic.twitter.com/3Lk5Ef3tRl

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) February 16, 2024

Keep an eye on Turley’s blog for more, too.