President Donald Trump is asking a New York state court to fully dismiss fraud charges brought against him and his business associates by Attorney General Letitia James in 2022.
The New York Appellate Division’s First Judicial Department already overturned a nearly half-billion dollar fine against Trump in August last year, but allowed his conviction to stand.
His attorneys are asking the guilty verdict and the entire case be thrown out, and that court-ordered restrictions of the defendants to do business in New York be removed.
The case stems from hundreds of millions in loans that Trump took out between 2011 and 2021 in partnership with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., along with other business associates.
Though the loans were paid back “fully and on time,” James alleged Trump and his cohort had submitted financial disclosures with overestimated property values to obtain them. She sued for fraud.
Trump’s attorneys have alleged those charges were politically motivated, citing statements by James, who ran for office on a platform of investigating and prosecuting Trump if she were elected.
They’ve also said that the charges shouldn’t have been brought in the first place, since some were outside the statute of limitations, and James had no right to intervene in a private financial transaction where neither party had complained.
An executive from one lender, Deutsche Bank, testified at trial that his organization didn’t rely on Trump’s estimation of his own net worth, and would have given him the same interest rates if he had only been worth $100 million.
The prospect of future business with Trump’s other businesses made him a desirable partner to the bank, Trump’s attorneys wrote.
In February 2024, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found Trump and his associates liable and ordered them to pay a penalty of $464,567,230.62.
Wednesday’s appeal is the latest wrinkle in the president and the attorney general’s tense relationship.
“I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day,” she said at that time.