Powerful legal group with Koch ties throws weight behind Trump's $464M civil fraud appeal
A self-purported nonpartisan legal group that fights the "deep state" with help from major conservative donors has thrown its support behind Donald Trump's civil fraud case appeal, court records show.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed over the weekend an amicus brief in Trump's challenge to the multi-million dollar civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"A law can punish untrue speech only if it requires a showing of injury," argued counsel Prof. Gregory Dolin. "As the old saying goes, 'Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins.'"
The question of harm was one repeatedly raised by Trump during the months-long trial in New York City civil court where Trump was found liable of defrauding investors and lenders by inflating the value of his assets.
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While Trump's lawyers argued that banks received their money and Trump Organization investors prospered, state prosecutors contended Trump violated the law and should face the consequences.
Justice Arthur Engoron agreed, finding Trump liable for fraud in September 2023 and hitting Trump with a $464 million penalty in February. Trump negotiated his bond down to $175 million and filed an appeal in July.
On Monday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance again tried to argue, no harm, no foul by asserting New York State executive law violates the First Amendment.
"Perversely, it punishes even immaterial, innocently made false statements that caused no harm whatsoever," the filing states. "Thus, even the least significant untrue statement can be punished as fraud if it creates the wrong 'atmosphere.'"
James office argued Trump family and organization false statements also created $250 million in unlawful profit.
Interestingly, the New Civil Liberties Alliance brief also includes a lengthy statement on the group's nonpartisanship.
"NCLA is devoted to law, not politics," the filing states. "In seeking to protect our constitutional freedoms, it brings suits on behalf of all sorts of Americans, regardless of their political views, against both Republican and Democratic administrations."
But a Bloomberg report from January questions this claim.
"It’s backed by groups tied to powerful sources of conservative funding, including billionaire Charles Koch and entities linked to legal activist Leonard Leo, who’s had direct influence over the [Supreme Court]'s conservative makeup," writes Bloomberg reporter Lydia Wheeler. "Its agenda of weakening the so-called administrative state is a long-sought conservative goal."
The New Civil Liberties Alliance's biggest Supreme Court case was argued in January and ruled on last month in a decision that overturned decades of court precedent when it comes to deferring to government agencies' interpretations of federal regulations.