In my newly released New York Times bestselling book, Breaking the Law, I made the case that the nearly-$500 million fined imposed on Donald Trump by Judge Arthur Engeron in Letitia “Tish” James’s civil fraud case was a cruel and unusual punishment.
Today, we learned that a panel of five judges in New York’s mid-level Appellate Division believed that the fine imposed on Trump was “excessive,” i.e. it violated the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.
As I noted in Breaking the Law:
Trump was always going to lose (are you beginning to notice the pattern?), given the Democrat AG, the Democrat judge, and the absence of a jury. The brunt of the penalty for the victimless crime would be financial. Engoron and James came up with a number so obscene it reads like a joke: $354.8 million—plus interest!—adding up to over $450 million.
Yes, this was a juryless trial. And after interest accumulated, the penalty would have been over a half a billion dollars in total. In fact, it has been accumulating at a clip of over $87,000 per day! As of the March 2025 Oval Office interview I conducted with President Trump, they still have his money. Yes, the $175 million bond was still up as of Spring 2025.
Tish James and the state of New York ought to pay Trump interest on his $175 million they held for fraudulent reasons.
The math on how they got to this number is, of course, unintelligible. They plucked it out of thin air. It was bigger than anyone saw coming, more than four times the outrageous $80 million that Trump was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll.
The E. Jean Carroll penalty should also be thrown out on the same grounds. But, as I note in Breaking the Law, James wasn’t done yet. She called for lifetime bans for Trump and other Trump Org officials from participation in the New York real estate industry or serving on other corporate boards or as officers. She asked for Trump’s eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric, to get five-year bans. Engoron obliged. He barred Trump from serving in top roles in New York, including some at his own companies, for three years, among other penalties.
James and Engoron had abandoned the legal foundations of civil law and assessed a fine that imitates a criminal penalty and is, I believe, a fundamentally cruel and unusual one. Nearly half a billion dollars in a zero-damages situation is an excessive amount that is seemingly chosen at random.
None of this should have been surprising. After all, James had famously campaigned to get Donald Trump. She had said that she looked forward to suing him and that she would be a “pain in his ass.” After the verdict came down, James began to taunt Trump by posting daily updates to the X social media platform on the gargantuan interest payment he was required to make. All of this violates his right to due process and equal protection under the law.
Former President Donald Trump sits in court with attorneys Alina Habba and Christopher Kise during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on October 25, 2023, in New York City. (Seth Wenig/Getty Images)
If Tish James is allowed to continue to practice law in this country, it means that our judicial system is nothing more than a tool of Democrat political power, whereby political operators have a mechanism to harass, fine, and jail their opponents.
This cannot stand.
We must make an example out of James. She must be disbarred.
Two weeks ago, the Justice Department opened an investigation into James for depriving Trump of rights. It represents a historic opportunity to restore equal justice under the law in our country.
This article was adapted from portions of Breaking the Law.
Breaking the Law: Exposing the Weaponization of America’s Legal System Against Donald Trump, which has been hailed by President Trump as a “must read” book, is available in hardcover, eReader format, and as an audiobook read by the author himself.
Alex Marlow is the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, a three-time New York Times bestselling author, and the host of “The Alex Marlow Show” podcast produced weekdays by Breitbart News and Salem Podcast Network. You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. You can follow Alex on Facebook, Instagram, and X at @AlexMarlow.
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