'Unprecedented power-grab': Trump appeals civil ruling finding business liable for $354M

Donald Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal to a New York civil court judgment that found the Trump Organization liable for $354 million in damages, NBC reports.

The judgment, which continues to accrue millions in interest, was the result of a civil fraud trial that wrapped late last year where prosecutors argued Trump inflated estimates of his wealth to secure bank loans.

The decision from New York Judge Arthur Engoron also prohibited Trump from running any business in the state for three years.

In a nearly 100-page appeal filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers argue that the case brought by Attorney General Letitia James constituted an “unauthorized, unprecedented power-grab,” according to NBC, and claims that the case sought to “unwind and penalize complex, highly successful transactions between Appellants and sophisticated Wall Street banks that left all parties deeply satisfied and had no impact on the public interest."