Trump Avoids Accountability Yet Again as Civil Fraud Ruling Tossed

Donald Trump might not have to pay the piper after all.

A New York appeals court threw out the president’s $500 million civil fraud fine Thursday, claiming the resulting penalty for the Trump Organization’s bank fraud case was an “excessive fine.”

“The court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Justice Peter Moulton wrote in one of three opinions.

The contentious decision from the five-judge panel paves the way for the case to advance to New York’s highest court.

At least two judges on the court agreed with the original ruling that found Trump and his co-defendants liable for fraud, noting that the injunctive relief ordered by the presiding judge  was “well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture.” However, the final page of the order states that “three out of the five members of this panel clearly believe that the judgment should be vacated” on the basis that the “attorney general has not yet proven her case.”

Since Trump lost the case, his attorneys have argued that the fine was “grossly disproportionate” to his offenses, which included defrauding banks, insurance companies, and investors by falsely inflating his wealth and the value of his properties.

The penalty had left Trump and his portfolio in a whopping financial pickle. The former real estate mogul tried and failed to pause growing interest on the judgment, at one point counter-offering the court a $100 million bond in lieu of the full amount. 

He also approached several brokers and upwards of 30 suretors for help in securing a bond, though his attorneys claimed he was unsuccessful in doing so as the suretors refused to accept Trump’s real estate as collateral. Instead, they would only accept cash to the tune of $1 billion, which Trump claimed last year he didn’t have.

New York Attorney General Letitia James had threatened to seize some of Trump’s largest assets—including 40 Wall Street and Trump Tower—to cover the outstanding disgorgement. 

The decision also restricted the Trump Organization from borrowing cash and barred Trump’s two eldest sons from doing business in New York for two years.

James has been a target of Trump’s retribution campaign since he returned to the White House. Earlier this month, the Justice Department opened an investigation into James and her work, accusing her of violating Trump’s constitutional rights by taking legal action against him.

This story has been updated.

The U.S. Department of Justice tried to force a Philadelphia children’s hospital to hand over information on young transgender patients as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on gender-affirming care for minors, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

A subpoena issued to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in June demanded access to “every writing or record of whatever type” that doctors had made, including everything from emails, Zoom recordings, and texts to names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers.

Notably, gender-affirming care is not illegal in Pennsylvania. Still, the Trump administration is taking efforts to invade young patients’ privacy, endangering them and the health care providers who treat them.

The subpoena became public Monday as part of a separate lawsuit from Washington state Attorney General Nicholas W. Brown, who is suing the Trump administration to block its executive order threatening to end federal funding to medical institutions that provide lifesaving gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 19.

In a court filing, Brown wrote that the DOJ’s request for info from CHP has “only escalated” Trump’s efforts since a judge blocked his executive orders earlier this year.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the DOJ had issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that it claimed “mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.” The subpoenas arrived at hospitals in states that had banned gender-affirming care, as well as those that had not.

HuffPost conducted an independent review and found that 25 hospitals had ended gender-affirming care services since July, and none of them were in states that had bans. Health care providers are concerned that providing hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries could result in them being charged with a felony.

In July, Trump claimed credit for ending gender-affirming care at specialized adolescent programs in several states where it is legal: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s campaign adviser was caught trying to bribe a reporter with a potato chip bag full of cash on Wednesday.

This move comes as more and more of Adams’s inner circle face corruption, fraud, and bribery charges.

It started at what was a very typical event: the opening of Adams’s new Harlem campaign office, which The City’s Katie Honan was in attendance for. She got a text from Winnie Greco—campaign adviser and former Asian community liaison—saying that she’d seen her there, and asking her to meet her for a chat at a nearby Whole Foods.

While they were talking, Greco gave Honan an opened bag of chips with the top smushed closed. Honan told Greco she didn’t want the chips, but Greco insisted. When they went their separate ways, Honan opened the bag and found at least $140 in cash in it.

“I can’t take this, when can I give it back to you?” Honan texted Greco. She did not reply. Honan then took the bag back to The City’s office and gave it to her editors, who then contacted New York’s Department of Investigation. The publication never actually took the money out of the bag.

Following the interaction at the Whole Foods, Honan brought the chip bag and envelope with money back to The City’s office and handed it over to her editors. The City then contacted the city Department of Investigation. Anticipating possible law enforcement investigations, The City did not open the envelope or count the money inside.

After getting caught, Greco apologised profusely and blamed the blatant bribe on her Chinese heritage.

“I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing,” she said, according to The City. “I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey.”

Greco told The City to call her lawyer, Steven Brill.

“I can see how this looks strange.… But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent,” he said. “In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused.”

Absolutely no one was buying this excuse, not even the Adams campaign. It suspended Greco from any campaign activity, effective immediately.

“We are shocked by these reports,” Adams campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro said. “Winnie Grecco [sic] holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all VOLUNTEER campaign-related activities. Mayor Adams had no prior knowledge of this matter. He has always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards, and his sole focus remains on serving the people of New York City with integrity.”

Decisions like this are why several Adams aides and confidants are being charged with multiple counts of fraud and bribery. This is another extremely serious act of corruption from the campaign of an extremely unserious mayor.

In a sudden about-face, Donald Trump now thinks it would be “better” if Russia and Ukraine met without him.

For the better part of this week, the U.S. leader has bragged that his recent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were “very successful”—in spite of the fact that the internationally controversial decision to invite his Russian counterpart to Alaska proved fruitless.

On Monday, Trump promised to coordinate a trilateral arrangement between himself, Putin, and Zelenskiy to solidify a peace deal. But just days later, the commander in chief changed his tune.

In an interview with conservative podcaster Mark Levin on Wednesday, Trump claimed the two warring countries should meet without his involvement.

“I had a very successful meeting with President Putin. I had a very successful meeting with President Zelenskiy. And now I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see. I want to see what goes on. You know, they had a hard relationship, very bad, very bad relationship,” Trump said.

Putin has remained adamant that any peace deal would require “international legal recognition” of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, an internationally recognized portion of Ukraine, along with four regions it has claimed in the three years since it first invaded Ukraine. Ukraine, on the other hand, has remained just as adamant that those regions will remain within its borders.

Trump did suggest that the apparently just-for-fun meeting could be saved by his intervention, if needed.

“And now we’ll see how they do and, if necessary, and it probably would be, but if necessary, I’ll go and I’ll probably be able to get it close,” he continued.

Whether or not the U.S. president appreciates the gravity of negotiating over Ukraine’s occupied territories is unclear, considering he doesn’t seem to know where or how large they are. In the same interview with Levin, Trump wrongly asserted that Crimea was “the size of Texas” and that the Ukrainian peninsula was “in the middle of the ocean,” a faux pas that was not received well by Kyiv’s news media.

At least 13,883 civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. The monthly death toll reached 67 in July, with 209 injured, marking the highest monthly civilian death and injury count since the conflict began.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently shares the president’s obsession with shiny objects.

After the Department of Homeland Security blinged out ICE vehicles for a vain rap video, the agency now plans to shell out millions more in taxpayer dollars on flashy new rides.

The video, posted on social media last week, showed two ICE vehicles, darkly wrapped with gold accents and emblazoned with the slogan “DEFEND THE HOMELAND,” cruising through Washington, D.C., to DaBaby’s 2019 hit, “Toes.”

The cars in that video reportedly cost over $380,000, but the agency seems ready to dish out millions more on vehicles in the same style.

The Washington Post on Wednesday revealed $2.4 million in planned ICE expenditures—the bulk of which will go toward 25 Chevrolet Tahoes, with about $174,000 covering the custom-wrapping of Tahoes, Ford Expeditions, and other vehicles.

The purchases were detailed in records that the government had to submit in order to forgo the typical competitive bidding process that’s in place to ensure best value for taxpayers.

The decorated cars are, according to the documents, “essential for officers to provide support and a law enforcement presence” in the nation’s capital, and “must be deployed to the streets immediately to provide a visible law enforcement presence, support public safety operations, and reinforce recruitment efforts.”

Beyond seeking cosmeticized cars to aid President Donald Trump’s D.C. crackdown, the agency is also dipping into its congressionally approved slush fund to the tune of hundreds of thousands for vehicles and car-wrapping services as part of recruitment efforts.

ICE is eschewing the open bidding process for these, too, on the grounds that “the need for the services is so urgent and compelling that providing full and open competition would result in unacceptable delays and seriously hinder the Government’s recruiting initiative.”

For example, Ford Mustangs included in this order—in “an immediate request” by the White House—are said to feature “eye-catching design[s]” that help “attract top talent by conveying a culture of excellence and forward momentum.”