Andy McCarthy explains why appeals court tossed Letitia James’s ‘ridiculous’ penalty against Trump

Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy said on Thursday that the “outrageous penalty” leveled against President Donald Trump by New York Judge Arthur Engoron was “ridiculous” given what had been established.

A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that the $355 million civil penalty issued by Engoron in February 2024 violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines, but allowed other provisions of the judge’s ruling to stand. McCarthy told “America’s Newsroom” co-host Dana Perino and guest co-host Bill Melugin it was clear that the financial penalty “had to go.”

“I think Trump may be ultimately completely exonerated on this, for now, the penalty goes,” McCarthy said. “There was division in the appeals court about the merits of the underlying suit but as you point out, what they found basically under an Eighth Amendment theory, the amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, there was such a mismatch between whatever wrong was actually established in the trial and the outrageous penalty that was imposed for it, which was, I think, $355 million, which with interest and other costs is already up to about $530 million now because it continued to accrue for a while. That was such a ridiculous mismatch between what the penalty was and whatever the wrong was that was established, that that had to go.”

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“The court is leaving in place some other what they call injunctive rulings that were made by the court. So, some things have to be sorted out, like how much monitoring the Trump Organization is going to be under,” McCarthy continued. “But he is out from under the most important part of the case, obviously and I think there could still be an appeal to the highest appeals court in New York, the Court of Appeals, where they will deal with the question that seems to have vexed the appellate division, which is the whole merits of the case and whether Letitia James, the attorney general from New York State, should have been able to use a consumer protection statute that had never been used in this way to try to establish a fraud case based on sophisticated financial actors.”

James filed suit against Trump in September 2022, alleging he overstated the value of real estate holdings, including Mar-a-Lago, to obtain loans. She vowed to investigate Trump, whom she called an “illegitimate president,” during her 2018 campaign for attorney general.

McCarthy said James’ pursuit of Trump helped him in the 2024 presidential campaign, stating ,“I think Trump is president because of lawfare.”

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