Fifteen GOP-led states back Trump bid to reverse $454 million fraud judgment

South Carolina and 14 other states are backing former President Donald Trump‘s efforts to appeal a New York court order for him to pay more than $454 million for allegedly making false estimates on the value of his assets and properties.

Earlier this year, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for allegedly submitting false financial statements to banks and insurers to obtain more favorable rates on loans and insurance coverage. The total amount Trump owes the state is approximately $454 million after pre-judgment interest, and the former president has appealed to New York’s intermediate appellate court.

“Our brief isn’t about Donald Trump, it’s about upholding the rule of law and the Constitution,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement on Friday. “We argue that this award is an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment and also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The brief asserts that the disgorgement, resulting from Engoron’s ruling that Trump allegedly submitted false financial statements for financial gain, violates the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

“The approximately $355 million disgorgement against President Trump was an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment,” the brief stated.

Moreover, the coalition of states’ brief suggested that it is universally “undisputed that defendants have made all required [loan] payments on time,” noting that Trump’s alleged misconduct did not result in direct financial harm to the banks or insurance companies.

The brief by 15 GOP-led states comes as other Republican attorneys general have thrust their support behind Trump as he navigates four criminal cases, plus additional civil cases, in the throes of the 2024 election.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is also seeking to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Trump’s separate criminal case in the New York borough of Manhattan after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments given to a porn star before the presidential election in 2016.

Bailey has said constituents in his state are being “denied access” to Trump as a candidate due to a limited gag order imposed on the former president in the hush money case, and he has further called for Trump’s mid-September sentencing date to be pushed until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James responded to Bailey’s effort at the Supreme Court, telling the justices that “Trump has already raised, and the New York state courts are already adjudicating, the same issues Missouri seeks to raise,” calling Missouri’s claims “patently meritless.”

It’s unclear whether and to what extent New York’s intermediate appellate court will consider the multistate effort to support Trump’s appeal of the civil fraud judgment. The appeals court could hear the case as soon as September, when its fall term begins.

Additionally, legal experts have suggested Missouri’s effort to sue New York is likely a long-shot challenge, given that states typically lack the ability to intervene in matters concerning another state’s criminal justice system.