Fresh off victories in other legal cases, Donald Trump on Monday pressed a New York appeals court to overturn the nearly $500 million New York civil fraud judgment that threatens to drain his personal cash reserves as he campaigns to retake the White House.

In paperwork filed with the state’s mid-level appeals court, the former president’s lawyers said Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding that Trump lied to banks, insurers and others about his wealth was “erroneous” and “egregious.”

His lawyers argued that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit should have been promptly dismissed, the statute of limitations barred some allegations, that no one was harmed by Trump’s alleged fraud and that James’ involvement in private business transactions threatens to drive business out of the state.

  • WatDabney@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    Well… I guess this, as all cases involving Trump now seem to, is going to hinge on whether this is a court that still follows the rule of law, or one of the seemingly growing number that follow the rule of demagoguery, shallow self-interest and corruption.

    • j4k3@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Someone put out a signal light on the sky. We need a Teddy T1000 Roosevelt badly, with a very very big stick.

      • Khanzarate@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        SCOTUS ruling doesn’t apply here, they’re just commenting on the general trend of people not willing to sentence trump to anything, seemingly.

      • WatDabney@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        Right, but at this point, I wouldn’t put it past a court to just dream up some other excuse for ruling as their bias/bribes dictate.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          So, the issue is that a lot of the assets he does have, have been used as collateral already.

          The loan is still in escrow, afik, but it’s likely he can’t actually liquidate those assets (because collateral.) or use them as collateral for another loan (because banks don’t like to share collateral.)

          In short he’s leveraged to his neck on his properties, and may not have the ready cash; if that loan were to go poof for some reason. (Like being illegal. I never did catch what happened with that.)

        • DreamDrifter@lemmynsfw.com
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          4 months ago

          Can he though?

          He might never have been a billionaire at any point, he’s always been leveraged to the gills and bleeding money. Plus the fraud, making up fake names to call up Forbes to be declared a billionaire, and the fact he is constantly hustling (while campaigning and terminally old) for a few more million

          Most of all, there’s the fact that billionaires are only billionaires on paper. Their wealth would shrink massively if they can’t time the sell-offs at the right time, most commonly known billionaires could keep the title selling for 10 cents on the dollar, but Trump isn’t near that level no matter how you slice it

          Mar a Lago is estimated at like 200-300m, his apartment is worth tens of millions, and pretty much everything else he only owns a partial stake in and is likely leveraged even if it could be cleanly sold. And who knows what other debt factors in - he’s had a lot of failed projects and a lot of unpaid invoices

          None of them are proof, but altogether it doesn’t paint the picture of a billionaire - a billion dollars is a truly unthinkable amount of money, and I can’t see a showoff like him not collecting things to brag about

          I don’t think he has it, or if he does it’d be a close thing

          And to leave you with a final thought - Trump owns 3 guns, one of which he risked his freedom to hide away. What kind of billionaire both cares about guns enough to break parole (even if the prison risk was very unlikely), but also doesn’t have a small armory professionally decorated just to show off?

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      4 months ago

      Very weird. Supreme Court is not the highest court in new york state for anyone confused. Court of appeals is the highest court.

      • PassingThrough@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I mean, it kinda makes sense. Especially in this day and age an appeal is the final say, not the court ruling(feels like everything gets appealed). So, this way the place that happens is the highest court in the state. The final ruling is whether the highest non-appeals court did it right, not the original issue.

        Or, put another way, if you tell me the highest court in the land has made a decision, I would expect that to be the end of it. But it’s not. From the moment the verdict is read lawyers are preparing an appeal. Therefore, whatever court takes the appeal makes the true final decision. Why not then make that the highest court in the land and better reflect the role?

          • PassingThrough@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Maybe not by name, but by job it does. That’s why it “kinda” makes sense. The court might be Supreme in name but not in duty, whoever got to write up the org chart realized that the appeals court got the final say and was the real top dog.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Because then the supreme court isn’t actually supreme (highest in rank or authority).

          • PassingThrough@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Which is true in context. It’s a traditional name but it is not the highest authority, if you can make your case the appeals court can overrule them, making them the highest authority.