A US court threw out Thursday a $464 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump imposed by a judge who found he fraudulently inflated his personal worth, calling the sum “excessive” but upholding the judgment against him.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump in February 2024 at the height of his campaign to retake the White House, which coincided with several active criminal prosecutions that the Republican slammed as “lawfare.”
“It was a Political Witch Hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform Thursday, adding that “everything I did was absolutely CORRECT and, even, PERFECT.”
When Engoron originally ruled against Trump, he ordered the mogul-turned-politician to pay $464 million, including interest, while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were told to hand over more than $4 million each.
The judge found that Trump and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.