Some justices on the New York appeals court reviewing former President Donald Trump‘s nearly half-billion-dollar fraud judgment believe there are some “real problems” with the case and its ruling, attorney Jonathan Turley said Friday.
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and The Trump Organization liable for a scheme in which the value of Trump’s net worth and assets were unlawfully inflated to obtain more favorable business deals.
Trump was ordered to pay a $464 million fine and was banned from the New York real estate business for three years. That figure has now risen to $489 million with interest. The order stems from a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, in which Trump has maintained his innocence.
Trump’s lawyers appealed the ruling, and on Thursday, they asked the panel of five appellate justices to overturn the ruling, arguing that the penalty is excessive and some of the allegations were outside of the state’s statute of limitations.
In a Friday interview with Fox News host Steve Doocy, Jonathan Turley, an analyst for the network and a professor at George Washington University Law School who often defends Trump, said, “This panel expressed real problems” with the case.
He specifically mentioned Justice David Friedman, who noted that the law James used to bring the lawsuit “is supposed to protect the market and the consumers—I don’t see it here.”
In an emailed statement to Newsweek, Turley continued, “Justice Friedman correctly noted that it is hard to see how this case is tied to the underlying purposes of the law.”
Turley also said in the statement, “The justices appeared skeptical, but Justice Friedman put the finest point on the questions. The Trump case is wildly off base from the past use of this law. There was no victim in the case. No one lost a dime.”
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Using a similar argument, the appellate court questioned Deputy New York Solicitor General Judith Vale on Thursday about the lack of victims in the case and the huge penalty that Trump is ordered to pay.
“The immense penalty in this case is troubling,” Justice Peter Moulton said to Vale, adding, “How do you tether the amount that was assessed by the Supreme Court to the harm that was caused here where the parties left these transactions happy?”
Vale replied that, although it is a large fine, “it’s a large number for a couple reasons. One, because there was a lot of fraud and illegality.”
In his statement to Newsweek, Turley called the penalty set by Engoron “absurdly out of line with not just the purpose of the law but the facts of the case.”
The New York appellate court is expected to issue its decision on Trump’s case in about a month, potentially ahead of Election Day on November 5, in which Trump is the GOP presidential nominee. Depending on the outcome of the appeals ruling, either side could also petition the state’s highest court to take up the case.
The fraud suit is one of several pending legal matters against Trump as he runs for a second term in the White House. In May, a New York jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsified business documents, and he is awaiting his sentencing.