Reporting between updates on Hurricane Helene bearing down on Florida and Georgia, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin told host Andrea Mitchell that a hearing in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is not going well for prosecutors who won a guilty verdict against Donald Trump for committing massive fraud.
The court is in session on Thursday with a five judge panel hearing arguments from prosecutors from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office and Trump's lawyers arguing whether the $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump – now at $478 million with interest – should be overturned.
According to Rubin, four of the five judges seemed to be siding with the former president that the state exceeded its authority to bring the case.
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As she told the MSNBC host, "I'm not watching the argument now as we are sitting here on set but the argument continues."
"What struck me is that the bench is a 'hot bench,' the five judges on the appellate division, who are hearing this appeal, asking a number of questions of the government's lawyer, showing hostility to the underlying theory of the attorney general's case, which is, is New York Executive Law § 63(12), meant to be so elastic as to encompass a dispute about lenders who were not unhappy with the nature of the transactions?"
She continued, saying the judges are "Asking them, are you stretching this statute beyond what it's designed to do, which is to punish consumer fraud? If the banks weren't unhappy and they weren't victimized, is there a case?"
"Really surprised to see four of the five judges coming out strongly and swinging on that point," she admitted.
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