Deadline: Legal Blog-The Trump civil fraud case is a mess. Another round of appeal could clean it up.

[Jarqui]

1. I also followed the trial but

I did not dig into the damages dollars

I recently posted this
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20570951
including:

The trial - aside from Trump lawyer maneuvers - was all about the damages because the evidence against Trump was so overwhelming and clear cut - it could not be defended => the summary judgement.

"Trump employed 16 different fraudulent deceptive strategies on 23 assets committing about 500 fraudulent acts which she proved in a court of law. " (my previous comment)

Due to statute of limitations, they only got Trump for about a decade of fraud. All indications are that he had been doing this for a few decades. So this disputed amount being tossed is like a technicality to me. Even if they successfully bicker to reduce the amount - that final amount is but a fraction of the fraud reality. This is a key way Trump existed financially. He thrived on fraud, not paying his bills and evading taxes. But the media isn't knocking itself to remind people of those facts established in a court of law and basically could not be refuted by Trump's army of lawyers.

If the AG and people of New York want to deter this sort of behavior (in part, the intent of the law), the fines/damages should be very stiff. The risk of a slap on the wrist if one gets caught makes it financially worthwhile for business leaders like Trump to continue the fraudulent practice - which was part of the rationale for Trump to carry on as he did for decades.

Letitia James proved Trump is a crook. From what I have gathered so far (I have not read the decision yet), the appeals court did not say otherwise.