A New York appeals court has ruled against Attorney General Letitia James in a case involving former President Donald Trump, with CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig describing the decision as a significant victory for Trump.
During a segment on CNN, Honig said, “I’m not [surprised]. I have been skeptical of the attorney general’s case for a long time. I’m on record saying that. This is a huge win for Donald Trump any way you cut it and this is a stinging rebuke to the attorney general, Letitia James.”
Honig elaborated on the ruling’s implications: “The finding here, it’s a very long and complicated ruling, but the bottom line is while the finding of liability against Donald Trump can stand for now, at least, the damages award which started at $315 million with interest, gets up close to $500 million; that is thrown out. And the core reason, according to the judges, is essentially that there was not enough of a showing here that there were actual victims.”
He also noted that banks involved in transactions with Trump received their loan payments and made profits from those deals. According to Honig, “the so-called ‘victims’ in this scenario are billion-dollar banks who received loan payments and ‘actually profited’ from Trump ‘to the tune of millions of dollars.’”
Honig suggested that further developments may occur as the case proceeds through additional appeals in New York state courts.
