Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354M, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

The former president was found to have defrauded lenders.

Last Updated: November 13, 2023, 2:54 PM EST

Former President Donald Trump has been fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in interest in a civil fraud lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel him to the White House. In the decision, Judge Arthur Engoron excoriated Trump, saying the president's credibility was "severely compromised," that the frauds "shock the conscience" and that Trump and his co-defendants showed a "complete lack of contrition and remorse" that he said "borders on pathological."

Engoron also hit Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump with $4 million fines and barred all three from helming New York companies for years. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his adult sons of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate Trump's net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.

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Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Feb 16, 2024, 4:07 PM EST

Summary of penalties

Donald Trump and his adult sons were hit with millions in fines in the civil fraud trial and barred for years from being officers in New York companies. The judge said the frauds "shock the conscience."

Donald Trump: $354 million fine + approx. $100 million in interest
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
Donald Trump Jr.: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Eric Trump: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg: $1 million fine
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company
Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney:
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company

Nov 13, 2023, 2:54 PM EST

Trump Jr. says golf course site was 'old-school New York mob job'

Donald Trump Jr., in testimony for the defense, touted the work of the Trump Organization to convert a landfill in the Bronx, New York, into a "absolutely incredible" golf course.

"It was raw dirt. It had been that way for a long time," Trump Jr. said of the original site of Trump Links Ferry Point near the Whitestone Bridge.

"People were supposedly trying to build a golf course for years," Trump Jr. said about previous efforts to build the facility, describing it as an "old-school New York mob job" where people got paid to move dirt around but not build anything.

Trump Jr. said that once his father got involved in the project, the site was successfully transformed in a matter of months.

Nov 13, 2023, 1:42 PM EST

Trump Jr. to get new and improved sketch

When he was last in court, Donald Trump Jr. took a particular interest in his courtroom sketch.

"He said, 'Make me look sexy,'" the sketch artist Jane Rosenberg told ABC News. By some accounts, the result was underwhelming.

Rosenberg has another opportunity to draw Trump Jr. with his return to court, and she thinks the new iteration is coming along well.

"I think they get better every time," she told ABC News.

Earlier in his testimony, Trump Jr. joked about a photo of his brother Eric Trump.

When the slideshow Trump Jr. was narrating displayed a professional headshot of his brother, Trump Jr. took a job at his younger sibling.

"A lot of Photoshop," Trump Jr. joked.

Nov 13, 2023, 1:12 PM EST

Trump Jr. assails judge's finding on Mar-a-Lago

In presenting a slideshow chronicling the Trump Organization's properties, Donald Trump Jr. highlighted many of their luxury features and iconic views -- implicitly suggesting their value.

That's particularly true of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, which Judge Engoron in a pretrial ruling determined was worth only a fraction of the amount claimed by Donald Trump, because Trump signed a deed that restricted its use to a social club, thereby limiting its resale value.

In this Aug. 10, 2022, file photo, an aerial view of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is shown in Palm Beach, Fla.
Steve Helber/AP, FILE

Describing how he took "umbrage" to the judge's determination that Mar-a-Lago was worth between $18 and $28 million, Trump Jr. highlighted specific features to challenge that finding. Showing an aerial photo of the property, Trump Jr. said that a nearby home whose size was dwarfed by the social club has been on sale for $50 million.

"You couldn't build that atrium for $18 million today," Trump Jr. said while presenting a photo of the building's historic atrium.

Nov 13, 2023, 12:53 PM EST

With glossy slides, Trump Jr. recounts firm's story

Donald Trump's testimony in the defense's case has so far centered around a slide show being presented by the defense, entitled "The Trump Story," that paints a timeline of Donald Trump's real estate acquisitions. When state attorneys objected to the glossy presentation -- which Trump Jr. acknowledged was created by his marketing team -- the judge allowed the slides, and thus permitted Trump Jr. to testify unrestrained about the company's properties.

"He's an artist with real estate. He sees the things other people don't," Trump Jr. said at one point when describing his father.

As he narrates the slide show, Trump Jr.'s testimony resembles a lecture on real estate, sprinkled with details about his family's properties -- such as the individual stones used to construct the Seven Springs estate or the bank safes at 40 Wall Street, which he said once stored gold from the Federal Reserve.

"They're actually spectacular ... it's truly a mechanical work of art," Trump Jr. said of the safes.

Referencing broken down historic properties that the company has transformed back to their former glory, Trump Jr. called such properties the "canvas" for his his "father's art."

"He understands and has an incredible vision that other people don't," Trump Jr. said.

After a particular lengthy response, Trump Jr. referenced his father's own tendency to speak in prolonged monologues, joking, "I got half the genes."

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